North Korea's legislature, the Supreme People's Assembly, decided to improve the system on the development of cities and local cities to improve people's living conditions.
The Korean Central News Agency reported on the 24th that North Korea held a standing meeting of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, put on the agenda and deliberated on the adoption of the "law on city formation and development," and adopted the relevant decree.
The agency said the law "has the mission of strictly establishing systems and order related to the formation and development of the capital and local cities, modernizing the appearance and environment of cities to meet the demands of a developing era, and providing the people with better living conditions."
The specific details of the bill were not disclosed. However, it appears to have been introduced with the intent of comprehensively controlling the urban development process under the pretext of preventing haphazard development and other issues.
With the 9th party congress set for early next year, there is also speculation that this is legislation to support the implementation of Chairperson Kim Jong-un's flagship "20×10 local development policy."
In Jan. last year, the chairperson unveiled a plan to build modern factories in 20 cities and counties every year to raise local living standards by one step within 10 years, and is focusing on establishing local infrastructure by expanding the policy's scope to hospitals and grain management facilities.