Kim Jong-un to Deliver Message on Inter-Korean and North Korea-US Relations Improvement at Supreme People's Assembly on 28th

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] North Korea will hold the Supreme People's Assembly, equivalent to South Korea's National Assembly, in Pyongyang on the 28th. Attention is focused on what additional messages Kim Jong-un, General Secretary of the Workers' Party, will deliver regarding inter-Korean relations improvement and the resumption of North Korea-US talks at this meeting.

According to diplomatic circles on the 27th, North Korea recently announced through the Korean Central News Agency that the 5th session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly will be convened in Pyongyang on September 28.

The news agency reported that the meeting will discuss issues related to the adoption of the Law on City and County Development and the Law on Guaranteeing Youth Education, amendments and supplements to the People's Economic Plan Law, issues related to the supervision and inspection of the implementation of the Recycling Law, and organizational matters.

The most notable agenda item at this Supreme People's Assembly is the adoption of the Law on Guaranteeing Youth Education.

North Korea, which is extremely wary of the inflow of South Korean video materials and other external cultural products, appears to identify the youth as the most vulnerable group to such external influences and is enacting a new law for their regulation.

This is an additional legislation targeting only the youth following the adoption last December of the 'Law on Rejecting Reactionary Ideological and Cultural Influence,' which raised the maximum penalty for distributors of South Korean video materials to the death sentence.

With the first year of the new five-year national economic development plan approaching, attention is also drawn to the direction of amendments and supplements to the People's Economic Plan Law.

Experts see a possibility that more proactive dialogue messages may be delivered at this meeting through General Secretary Kim's speech or other means.

Since Kim Yo-jong, the Party Vice Department Director and sister of General Secretary Kim, issued consecutive statements on the 24th and 25th mentioning inter-Korean summits and signaling improvement in inter-Korean relations, there is a possibility that additional messages will be delivered this time as well.

General Secretary Kim has a precedent of expressing willingness for a third North Korea-US summit during his policy speech at the Supreme People's Assembly in April 2019.