N.Korean Parliament Meets

North Korea's rubber-stamp Supreme People's Assembly convenes on Tuesday for the second time this year. On Monday, delegates laid a wreath at the Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il statues at the Ministry of the People's Armed Forces in Pyongyang, the official KCNA news agency reported.

The SPA will likely discuss agricultural reforms that will permit farmers to sell about 30 to 50 percent of their produce in the market.

Farmers "will have incentive to grow more food. They can keep and sell in the market about 30-50 percent of their harvest depending on the region," Reuters quoted a source as saying.

Two farm workers in South Hwanghae Province said that under the plans they can "keep any surplus after a government quota had been met," according to AP.

A South Korean government source speculated the SPA will likely also revise laws related to the Hwanggumpyong and Rajin-Sonbong special zones, following a request from China during eminence grise Jang Song-taek's visit, or conduct a reshuffle of the National Defense Commission or the Cabinet.

But the North may not announce any other economic reform plans even if the SPA green-lights them. "When it took a previous economic reform on July 1, 2002, the regime didn't disclose it," another South Korean government official said. "Otherwise the party would have to take the fall if the new policy fails."