North Korea's official news agency says the country will hold local elections next month.

The Korean Central News Agency announced Tuesday that balloting will be held July 24 for delegates to provincial, city and county people's assemblies.

About 25,000 delegates were chosen in the last round of local elections in 2007. Local people's assemblies typically meet once or twice a year to discuss local budgets and law enforcement measures.

A South Korean scholar tells the French Press Agency the elections are part of the North's efforts to “overhaul its party and state organs” ahead of next year's 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder, and the leadership succession from his son, Kim Jong Il, to his grandson Kim Jong Un.