North Korea has voted for a new Prime Minister at the annual meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly.
Pak Pong-Ju is considered to be more open minded, as he was previously sacked in 2007 for persuing economic reforms.
At the time, he was pushing to give state firms more autonomy and gradually reduce state rationing of food and daily necessities.
Today's parliamentary session has also formalised the country's position as a nuclear weapons state, and adopted laws for space development.