North Korea assembly holds rare session amid sanctions push

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North Korea assembly holds rare session amid sanctions push

59 minutes ago

By Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's parliament meets for a rare second annual

session on Monday amid growing momentum in the international community to punish

Pyongyang for the sinking of a South Korean navy ship in March that killed 46

sailors.

Analysts said the North could use the extra session of the Supreme People's

Assembly to make a major announcement on personnel changes or power succession,

or to issue a hardline response to sanctions imposed by the South over the ship

sinking.

North Korea drove tensions to new heights in recent weeks by threatening war if

Seoul imposed sanctions, denying any role in the sinking of the corvette Cheonan

and accusing South Korean President Lee Myung-bak of using the incident for

political aims.

The mounting antagonism between the two Koreas, which so far has remained

rhetorical, has unnerved global investors, worried about armed conflict breaking

out in a region home to the world's second and third biggest economies.

Many analysts say neither side is ready to go to war but also see the

possibility of more skirmishes at their disputed sea border off the west coast

or along the heavily armed DMZ land buffer that could flare up into a major

fight.

South Korea last week took the dispute to the U.N. Security Council, demanding

its unruly neighbor admit to the sinking.

The Security Council last year imposed sanctions in response to the North's

nuclear test, cutting off most of its lucrative arms trade.

AGGRESSION

The South Korean and U.S. militaries are expected to stage a joint exercise

later this month, postponed from this week, to test readiness for the North's

aggression.

The South's Defense Ministry declined to confirm a local media report that said

the delay was to avoid irritating China, the North's key ally and a Security

Council permanent member, and win its crucial vote there to censure Pyongyang.

North Korea's state media said the drills would lead to the complete breakdown

of nuclear disarmament talks with five regional powers that it has boycotted for

more than a year.

" The anti-submarine exercise that the U.S. and South Korean warmongers plan to

stage is an extremely dangerous gamble involving a preemptive attack and

military power against us that could ignite a nuclear war, " the North's official

Rodong Sinmun daily said in a commentary on Monday.

Some analysts said the parliamentary session could also mark the 10th

anniversary of a summit between the two Koreas by formally overturning pledges

of reconciliation made then.

North Korea has called Seoul's move to refer it to the Security Council an

" unforgivable act of grave provocation. "

The Supreme People's Assembly is the North's rubberstamp parliament, and

approves new laws, personnel changes and economic policy initiatives as a

formality after they have been formulated by the leadership.

The focus of power is the National Defense Commission headed by the country's

supreme leader Kim Jong-il and staffed by some of his closest confidants.

The carefully choreographed sessions do not typically touch on the North's

nuclear ambitions or its negotiations with the outside world on reducing the

threat it poses to the region in return for aid and better global standing.

(Editing by Hopfner and Tait)