North Korea's new parliament will convene on April 9, one day after the period set aside for a rocket launch, state media said Friday.
"The first session of the 12th SPA (Supreme People's Assembly) will be convened in Pyongyang on April 9," the Korean Central News Agency reported.
The meeting will re-elect leader Kim Jong-Il to his post as chairman of the National Defence Commission, the country's most powerful body.
The communist state has told international shipping and aviation bodies it will launch a communications satellite sometime between April 4-8.
The US and South Korea say the launch is a pretext to test-fire a long-range missile in violation of a UN resolution.
North Korea elected its new parliament on March 8. The assembly is a rubber-stamp body, with candidates picked by the government or ruling party and only one standing in each district.
But its meeting is expected to pave the way for a cabinet reshuffle.
North Korea scheduled its 1998 missile launch for five days before the new assembly convened, in an apparent attempt to extract the maximum political mileage from the event.
