According to sources, regional Supreme People’s Assembly delegates began to arrive in Pyongyang on the 3rd and 4th, since when they have been engaged in the customary tours of the city’s multitude of ideological propaganda sites and other locations deemed relevant.
One source explained yesterday evening, “SPA attendees have finished checking in after arriving on the 3rd and 4th,” adding, “Delegates have been assigned to either Bonghwasan Hotel in Moranbong or Changkwangsan Hotel next to Pyongyang Gymnasium, and are now being mobilized for political events.”
“Controls have been strengthened at guard posts at the entrances to Pyongyang,” he went on. “Visits by outsiders have now been restricted for a number of days.”
When the SPA is scheduled to be in session, regional delegates must arrive in Pyongyang three days in advance. After confirming their arrival, they are required to visit both sites for the idolization of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and more practical locations chosen according to the primary agenda items for the given SPA session.
Since the authorities have set out their stall to ‘improve the people’s lives’ this year, there is the likelihood of visits to light industrial production facilities, but before that they must visit Mt. Keumsoo Memorial Palace and Kim Il Sung’s birth place, offer flowers before Kim Il Sung’s statue and take part in a memorial event. There will also be gatherings for the purpose of interpreting Kim Il Sung’s achievements and reaffirming his greatness.
For the purposes of showing off Kim Jong Il’s achievements, meanwhile, delegates usually traverse Gwangbok Street and take a look at the May 1st Stadium. At night they gather by province to review the events of the day.
This year, because it is assumed that this SPA session will feature moves to further elevate the successor, there is also a good chance of their visiting the construction of 100,000 houses, a project which is allegedly being led by Kim Jong Eun and Jang Sung Taek.
Elsewhere, Okryugwan, probably Pyongyang’s most famous restaurant, has been closed all week in order to feed the participants. Even foreigners and their hard currency are unwelcome.
Additionally, one defector who is in regular contact with a friend from Pyongyang revealed, “Now, in the Jung and Pyongcheon districts around the Botong River and Moran Hill, residence inspections have been stepped up.”
Meanwhile, beyond the borders of the capital there have been meetings of people’s units and the Union of Democratic Women under the slogan, “Let’s welcome the Supreme People’s Assembly with high political passion and achievements.”
In tomorrow’s SPA session itself, national accounts will be reviewed, budgets set and personnel management decisions vis the National Defense Commission and Cabinet taken. However, even inside North Korea everyone knows that its decisions merely formalize what Kim Jong Il and the Party elite have already decided.
