Supreme Peoples’ Assembly

The Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) is the legislative body (parliament) of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). It first met on 8 September 1948 to adopt the DPRK’s first constitution. It is unicameral. Since the introduction of the1972 Constitution, the SPA has had 687 members, who are nominally elected by all adults over 17. In reality, the delegates are drawn from a list approved by the Korean Workers’ Party. The last SPA elections were held in March 2009. The full SPA meets for only a few days each year. In between these full sessions, its work is carried out by a Presidium, whose chair also acts as formal head of state. The SPA elects the premier and the cabinet, but its most important role is the election of the National Defense Commission, which is designated as the “highest executive body” of the state. The SPA is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), and it hosted the 85th annual meeting of the IPU in Pyongyang in 1991. Some 830 delegates attended, from 86countries and 10 international organizations. A 25-member delegation from the Republic of Korea was among the delegates, the first such visit since the division of the peninsula in 1945.

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