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Workers plant rice at a co-op farm in Nampo, North Korea, on May 12. The North Korean leadership has given indications that it may be preparing to implement measures to liberalize the country's economy.

Workers plant rice at a co-op farm in Nampo, North Korea, on May 12. The North Korean leadership has given indications that it may be preparing to implement measures to liberalize the country's economy.

An unusual parliamentary meeting is due to open Tuesday in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, amid speculation of sweeping changes ahead. In the first such confirmation from within the country, farmers told The Associated Press they would be given more control over their crops under new agricultural rules. Long seen as an economic basket case, North Korea now could be on the cusp of economic change.

A recent state television broadcast shows North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong Un, with a straw hat jauntily perched on his head, visiting a collective farm, examining a group of skinny cows. Nobody knows for sure what's happening inside North Korea, but the country may be on the verge of something big.

One recent pilot program allowed some farmers to keep 30 percent of their crops, instead of giving almost everything to the state as in the past. It also shrunk collective farms to just three or four people, according to Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University in Seoul.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (center) visits the Pyongyang Vegetable Science Institute in the country's capital in this undated picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via the Korean News Service on Sept. 22.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (center) visits the Pyongyang Vegetable Science Institute in the country's capital in this undated picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via the Korean News Service on Sept. 22.

"It's very important. They're making the family unit into the major, official production unit in state-run collective farms," he says.

Change Happening On The Ground

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Signs Emerge Of Economic Change In North Korea