The North Korean Parliamentary Session and Budget Report 2018

Author(s)

Rüdiger Frank

Abstract

On April 11, 2018, the 6th session of the 13th Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) of the DPRK convened at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang, featuring a general report on the economy and a report on the state budget. Such meetings take place annually in spring, and neither the parliamentary session nor its timing this year was particularly extraordinary. However, this SPA session was preceded by a meeting of the highest body of the Korean Workers’ Party, the Politburo, on April 10, during which time the budget report was “examined and ratified” (검토비준하고). It is more than likely that the Party had pre-approved such documents in the past, although it was not customary to report this in state media. Highlighting this step in public discourse may be interpreted as a further step towards publicly re-establishing the rule of the Party that had lost its dominant influence during the Kim Jong Il era to the National Defense Commission. The revival of the Party started in September 2010 with the very Party Conference—the first after 44 years—where Kim Jong Un had first been introduced to the public.

Organisation(s)

Department of East Asian Studies

Journal

38 North

Publication date

04-2018

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

502027 Political economy, 602028 Korean studies

Keywords

Portal url

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/the-north-korean-parliamentary-session-and-budget-report-2018(cc72ac49-2df1-431a-bbc7-88b1d62af611).html