North Korea's parliament to hold next session in January

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North Korea's parliament to hold next session in January

SEOUL: North Korea's parliament will hold its next session in January, when it will make plans for the coming year, including the country's budget, state media said on Wednesday. The country's rubber-stamp legislature meets only once or twice a year to approve decisions deemed necessary by the ruling Workers' Party.

The 8th Session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly SPA of the DPRK will be held in Pyongyang on January 17, according to the official Korean Central News Agency KCNA.

The session is scheduled to include a review of the work of 2022, plans for 2023, discussions on the central prosecutor's office, the law on the protection of the cultured Pyongyang dialect, the issue of the work of the Central Public Prosecutors Office and an organisational matter KCNA said.

It is not clear whether North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will attend.

The international community keeps an eye on SPA meetings for signs of changes in economic policy or staffing shake-ups among high-ranking officials.

The Supreme People's Assembly convened in September and February.

Military pressure on the Korean peninsula has risen sharply this year as Pyongyang carried out a huge series of weapons tests last month, including the launch of its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile.

A missile crossed the maritime border and land near South Korea's territorial waters for the first time since the end of the Korean War in 1953, a flurry of launches saw it cross the de facto maritime border and land near South Korea's territorial waters.

Amid the tensions, Seoul and Washington have warned that Pyongyang may gear up to conduct the country's seventh nuclear test.

After the launch of the Hwasong 17 monster missile in November - with his young daughter in tow - Kim declared that he wanted North Korea to have the world's most powerful nuclear force.

Kim said at a politburo meeting last week that 2023 would be a historic year, marking the 75 years since the country's founding, according to KCNA.

He said that it was important to find new ways to solve problems by tapping our potentiality after a year of unprecedented adversity in 2022.