[Yonhap News Photo]
North Korea revived a parliamentary foreign affairs committee on Tuesday, its official media reported, a move seen aimed at beefing up its diplomacy amid toughening international sanctions.
The 13th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) convened the fifth plenary session attended by leader Kim Jong-un clad in a Mao-style suit, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
The SPA, North Korea's legislative body, is the highest organ of state power under the constitution, but it actually rubber-stamps decisions by more powerful organizations, such as the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).
The KCNA said that Ri Su-yong, former top diplomat and current vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party, was elected to head the SPA foreign affairs committee. The panel is said to have been created in the late 1980s but abolished 10 years later, experts said.
(Yonhap)
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
