North Korea to Hold Parliamentary Session Before Denuclearization Deadline

Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap

SEOUL, April 10 (Yonhap) – North Korea is to convene a parliamentary session this week just days ahead of the weekend deadline for the shutdown of its nuclear facilities under a February denuclearization agreement, officials said Tuesday.

The fifth session of the North’s 11th Supreme People’s Assembly will be held in Pyongyang on Wednesday, according to last month’s decision by its Presidium promulgated in public.

The meeting comes three days before the deadline set in the landmark Feb. 13 agreement for North Korea’s shutdown of its main nuclear reactor and allowing United Nations inspectors back into the country within 60 days. In return, North Korea would receive aid equal to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil from South Korea.

But the progress has been stymied by a row over the release of US$25 million in North Korean funds frozen in a Macau bank. The funds are suspected of being linked to counterfeiting and money laundering.

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