North Korea on Sunday held a session of its top legislature for the first time since August last year, state-run media reported Monday, amid speculation the coronavirus pandemic may be dealing a heavy blow to the nation's economy.
Observers were looking to see what kind of diplomatic policy North Korea would adopt at the Supreme People's Assembly as nuclear talks with the United States have been long stalled, but there was no announcement about it.
Although the legislative session had been scheduled for Friday, it was postponed for unknown reasons. Media reports suggest that leader Kim Jong Un did not attend it.
Ahead of the parliament session, North Korea decided at a key ruling party gathering presided over by Kim on Saturday to take "more thorough state measures" against the new virus, according to official Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea claims the pneumonia-causing coronavirus has not made inroads into the country, with travel to and from China and Russia having been shut down since earlier this year.
The Monday edition of the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the Workers' Party of Korea, ran photos showing hundreds of lawmakers not wearing protective face masks, while they sit at close range.
"The virus epidemic that broke out at the end of last year has rapidly expanded worldwide and has become a great disaster threatening the whole mankind, regardless of borders and continents," the news agency said in a report Sunday.
"Such reality shows that it has become impossible to remove the danger of the virus infection in a short time and such environment can become a condition creating some obstacles to our struggle and progress," KCNA added.
North Korea is believed to be vulnerable to infectious diseases against a backdrop of its chronic shortages of food and medical supplies as it remains under international economic sanctions aimed at thwarting its nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions.
In the past, Pyongyang barred foreigners from entering the nation during the 2003 epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014.
The new virus was first detected late last year in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
Since the outbreak began, North Korea's economy has apparently faced a severe downturn as trade with China, its closest ally and most influential partner in economic terms, has stagnated, foreign affairs experts say.
North Korea, meanwhile, has since February resumed military drills and weapons testing, as denuclearization talks with the United States remain at a standstill due largely to the distance between Washington's demands and Pyongyang's calls for sanctions relief.
At this year's session of the assembly, Ri Son Gwon, who became foreign minister earlier this year, was elected as a member of the State Affairs Commission, North Korea's highest decision-making body, the state-run news agency said.
Ri, a former military officer, is seen close to ruling party vice chairman Kim Yong Chol, known as a hard-liner on U.S. policy matters.
Regarding the state budget for 2020, approved by the parliament, North Korea will increase its spending on public health and economic construction, KCNA reported.
The assembly is normally convened once a year in April to rubber-stamp budgetary and personnel matters already decided by the Workers' Party of Korea, headed by Kim Jong Un.
Last year, the unicameral legislature held another session in August, during which it revised the country's Constitution to bolster Kim's power as head of state. It was the first time since 2014 the assembly had been convened twice in the same year.
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