North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament held a session Sunday, two days later than scheduled, the country’s state media reported Monday.

The 14th Supreme People’s Assembly gathered for a third session in Pyongyang. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was absent, so No. 2 leader Choe Ryong-hae chaired the parliamentary session, the Korea Central News Agency and Rodong Sinmun reported. While Kim’s attendance is not required at the Assembly, he has often appeared in the past and last year he delivered a policy speech there.

A day earlier, Kim presided over a Politburo meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party, where the Politburo decided to take more “thorough state measures” to protect citizens against the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite this, pictures published by the paper show hundreds of lawmakers sitting close to each other without face masks.

North Korea continues to insist the country is free of COVID-19, even though the coronavirus has been reported in nearly every other country, with the global tally exceeding 1.84 million cases and 114,000 deaths.

The meeting, which takes place once or twice a year, was previously scheduled for Friday. There was no explanation for the delay.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry said it appears that the schedule was adjusted due to some unspecified political events in the country.

During the meeting, the delegates decided on this year’s budget and confirmed official appointments. The North’s recently named Foreign Minister Ri Son-gwon was elected as a member of the State Affairs Commission, the country’s highest decision-making body under direct control of Kim Jong-un. Ri’s predecessors, former foreign ministers Ri Yong-ho and Ri Su-yong, were removed from the committee, indicating a transition of power in the country’s diplomatic sector.

Ri Pyong-chol, who spearheaded the North’s arms development; Kim Jong-ho, newly elected minister of the people’s security; and Kim Jong-gwan, minister of the people’s armed forces, were also named as new members of the commission.

During the session, the North projected that its national budget would grow 4.2 percent on-year this year, while its expenditures would increase 6 percent over the same period.

It allocated 47.8 percent of the budget to economic construction projects, up 6.2 percent from the previous year. The North also announced a 7.4 percent increase in its expenditures on public health this year, reflecting containment efforts against COVID-19 and its plans to build a large general hospital in Pyongyang.

For defense, it allocated 15.9 percent of the budget, similar to last year’s 15.8 percent.

The total amount in the budget is unknown, as the country doesn’t give out exact figures, only percentages of the total, when it discloses its annual budget plans at the Supreme People’s Assembly.

No major decisions on or messages to South Korea or the US were announced, amid stalled inter-Korean relations and deadlocked denuclearization negotiations with the US.

By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)