Organizations Cabinet Ministries The Supreme People's Assembly (SPA; Korean: 최고인민회의; MR: Ch'oego Inmin Hoeŭi) is the legislature of North Korea.

However, in practice it is a rubber stamp legislature which exists to approve decisions made by the ruling party as a formality, and which has little to no real power of its own.

The Assembly typically does not legislate directly but delegates that task to a smaller Standing Committee.

Government officials carry out the policies legislated by the SPA subject to oversight and correction by the Workers' Party of Korea.

[7] The last convention during Kim Il Sung's government took place in April 1994, three months before his death.

Instead, members listened to a tape-recorded speech of the late Kim Il Sung, which was made at the first session of the 9th SPA, in 1991.

Addressing the SPA session, Kim Yong-nam, chairman of the SPA Presidium, said Kim's accession to North Korea's top post reflected "the ardent desire and unanimous will of all the party members, servicepersons and other people".

Kim was nominated to represent his district, the symbolic Mount Paektu, in the assembly election.

The other participants in the coalition include the two other de facto legal political parties, the Korean Social Democratic Party and the Chondoist Chongu Party, as well as various other member organizations including social groups and youth groups, such as the Korean Children's Union, the Socialist Patriotic Youth League, the Korean Democratic Women's League, and the Red Cross Society of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Voting against a Democratic Front candidate is considered treasonous; those who do face the loss of their jobs and housing, along with extra surveillance.

Like most Communist legislatures, it does little more than ratify decisions already made by Kim and the top leadership of the WPK.

[citation needed] The Standing Committee exercises legislative power when the SPA is in recess, which occurs during all but a few days of every year.

[25] Prior to the creation of the post of President of North Korea in 1972, the Chairman of the Standing Committee was the country's de jure head of state.