SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Monday called for the opening of an unusual second session of its Supreme People's Assembly.

   According to the (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the sixth session of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly, or North Korea's parliament, will be held in Pyongyang on Sept. 25. Legislators have been informed to register for the event on Sept. 23-24, the media report said.

   North Korean watchers say it is very unusual for the North to hold two sessions of its parliament in one year. The Supreme People's Assembly met back in April and named North Korean leader Kim Jong-un the first chairman of the National Defense Commission, the communist state's top military organ.

   During the 17-year rein of late leader Kim Jong-il, the assembly held double sessions only twice, in 2003 and 2010.

   Sources speculated the unexpected gathering may be linked to approving laws that can support new economic reform programs, believed to be in progress under the new regime of Kim Jong-un.

   "The unusual gathering of the Supreme People's Assembly means there is a decision to be made through consent from all the citizens," said Chang Yong-suk, a researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies of Seoul National University. "Economic reform measures or reshuffling power groups like the National Defense Commission could possibly be (such decisions)."

   pbr@yna.co.kr
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