N. Korea removes assembly vice chairman, amends construction, precious metal laws
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Kim Hyong-sik, center, rear, vice chairman of the Presidium of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, presides over a plenary meeting of the rubber-stamp parliament’s standing committee at the Assembly Hall in Pyongyang, Thursday, in this photo released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency the next day. Yonhap
North Korea’s parliament has held a presidium meeting to dismiss an assembly vice chairman and revise two laws, state media said Friday.
The Standing Committee of North Korea’s 15th Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) held its second plenary meeting Thursday, presided over by Vice Chairman Kim Hyong-sik, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
The meeting decided to recall one of the assembly’s vice chairmen and a committee member. The report did not say who were recalled or explain why.
The assembly has two vice chairmen — Kim and Ri Son-gwon — and since Kim chaired the meeting, Ri may be the one who was removed.
Ri has held some of the regime’s most prominent posts on inter-Korean and foreign affairs. In March, he was appointed vice chairman of the SPA Standing Committee.
Ri served as chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, foreign minister from 2020 to 2022 and head of the United Front Department, which handles relations with the South.
The committee also adopted decrees amending the construction and the precious metal management laws, though the details of the changes were not disclosed.
The construction law revision may be linked to leader Kim Jong-un’s signature regional development policy.
The policy, launched in 2024, calls for building modern factories, hospitals and other service facilities in 20 cities and counties each year over a 10-year period, in an effort to close the gap between urban and rural areas and ensure regional self-sufficiency.
The North’s leader has stressed the need to supplement and perfect the construction law to transform local economies.
