In the statement he said President Kim Il Sung founded the DPRK, a genuine independent and sovereign state where the popular masses have become the master of the country, and developed it into a socialist power -- independent in politics, self-supporting in the economy and self-reliant in national defence.

Thanks to leader Kim Jong Il the Korean people could greet the new heyday of building a thriving socialist nation despite the imperialists' provocations and hardships, he said, and went on:

The army and people of the DPRK under the leadership of the dear respected Kim Jong Un will firmly carry forward the sacred revolutionary history and tradition started on Mt. Paektu and achieve bigger successes in building a thriving nation, holding aloft the banner of the great Juche idea, Songun idea.