NORTH KOREA'S -99.99%- ELECTIONS

PYONGYANG : Turn-out in nuclear-armed North Korea's single candidate elections hit 99.9 percent  this year, state media said on Tuesday - up from seemingly unimprovable 99.97 percent the last time they were held.

With participation figures that Western democracies would never achieve, millions of North Koreans head to nationwide polls every five years to elect the rubber-stamp legislature known as the Supreme People's Assembly''  [SPA]

But with only approved name on each voting slip in the isolated country, which is ruled with an iron grip by Kim Jong Un's Workers Party, the result is never in doubt.

This year's turnout fell a tiny fraction short of 100%  as those ''abroad or working in oceans'' were unable to take part, the North's official KCNA news agency reported.

''Single-minded unity,'' is one of Pyongyang's most enduring slogans and as in 2014, the votes were in the weekend elections were 100% in favor of the named candidates.

''All the electors participated as one in the election to cement our people's power as firm as a rock,'' KCNA said, citing a report released by the Central Election Committee.

''One hundred percent of them cast their ballots for the candidates for deputies to the SPA registered the in relevant constituencies,'' it added.

A detailed list of the 687 candidates was not immediately available, but the North's official Korean Central Television on Tuesday read out the names of elected members. [AFP]