(4th LD) N. Korea to hold parliamentary election in March

(ATTN: UPDATES lead, ADDS election details in paras 6, 12, 13, TRIMS headline)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Yonhap) -- North Korea will hold overdue parliamentary elections
in March, Pyongyang's official news agency said Wednesday, in what appears to be
a sign of the regime returning to normal with leader Kim Jong-il's improving
health.

The Supreme People's Assembly made its decision on Tuesday to "hold the 12th
representatives' election on March 8 in 2009," the Korean Central News Agency
said in a brief statement.
North Korea missed the elections expected in August 2008, when the assembly
members' five-year term expired. Seoul and Washington officials say Kim suffered
a stroke in mid-August.
Analysts view the notice as a sign that Kim has recovered enough to appear in
public. Recent North Korean media reports suggested a growing ease in his body
movement as he briskly toured industrial and military sites. In images released
on Monday, Kim was clapping with his two bare hands, compared to previous photos
in which he applauded with gloves on or had his left hand resting inside his
pocket or drooping at his side.
"With the election notice, North Korea is normalizing its political schedule,
based on a judgment that Chairman Kim's health has recovered to some degree,"
Yang Moo-jin, a professor of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul,
said.
A new assembly usually brings reshuffles in the Cabinet and the military, Seoul
officials say. New lawmakers also reappoint Kim Jong-il as chairman of the
National Defense Commission that oversees the North's 1.1-million-strong
military, as the term of the office of the chairman is aligned to coincide with
the assembly.
Seoul's Unification Ministry confirmed the election, saying it will open up a new
era for the leader.
"We have to see how the new parliament will be made up," ministry spokesman Kim
Ho-nyoun said.
A South Korean state-run think tank expects North Korea will promote young
economic elite in the coming election. Economic pragmatism may emerge to lay the
groundwork for the post-Kim Jong-il era and replace the military-first policy, a
ruling philosophy promulgated by Kim, according to the report in late December by
the Institute for National Security Strategy, which is an arm of the National
Intelligence Agency.
Officials cautioned against reading too much into the election. Lee Sang-min, a
ministry official on North Korean politics, said a new parliament "doesn't
necessarily mean a policy shift. It is the Workers' Party and the military that
set the policy direction in the communist state."
North Korea will try to use the parliamentary elections as an opportunity to
boost national unity as this year has few major anniversaries, he said.
Citizens vote in the direct election according to the North's Constitution, but
the list of candidates are drawn up by the Workers' Party assigning a single
candidate to each electorate. The current 687 representatives were elected in
2003, all with 100 percent approval.
North Korea has been shaking up industry posts of its 37-member Cabinet in a sign
of its stepped-up drive to rebuild its ailing economy. Five technocrats were
promoted to ministers of railways, forestry, electricity, agriculture and metal
industry in a reshuffle in late 2008, according to Seoul officials.
In its New Year newspaper editorial, North Korea vowed to "solve food problems by
our own efforts" and rebuild its frail industrial infrastructure. Pyongyang also
reaffirmed its military-first policy and its pledge to denuclearize the Korean
Peninsula.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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