SEOUL - NORTH Korea will use parliamentary elections in 2009 to lay the groundwork for the post Kim Jong-Il era, by promoting younger economic experts, a South Korean government think-tank says.

The Institute for National Security Strategy, an arm of the National Intelligence Service, said in a report carried by local media on Wednesday that the current Songun (army first) policy was expected gradually to give way to more pragmatic policies.

Elections for the rubber-stamp Supreme People's Assembly did not take place this year when its five-year term expired. The report said they are expected to be held next July or August.

South Korean and US officials have said the communist state's leader Kim Jong-Il suffered a stroke in mid-August, although Seoul officials say he made a good recovery.

His health is the subject of intense interest since the 66-year-old has not publicly nominated a successor to rule the impoverished but nuclear-armed state.

The institute said certain elderly politicians will be replaced and middle-aged ones will emerge via the elections.

'Increasingly more people who have presented economic benefits to the nation will be chosen as lawmakers.' The inauguration of a new assembly is customarily the prelude to a cabinet reshuffle.

The institute's report, quoted by Yonhap news agency and Dong-A Ilbo newspaper, said the North will try to improve relations with the new US administration and with China so it can receive more aid.

But it would put pressure on South Korea to change its cross-border policy by creating incidents to raise tension. -- AFP