Present there on invitation were Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, Kim Jong Suk, chairwoman of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, Kim Hyong Jun, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, and officials concerned.

A staff member of the Cuban embassy was present at the reception.

The Cuban ambassador said in a speech made at the reception that they significantly celebrated together with the Korean people the 102nd birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung.

The great life of Kim Il Sung was an example for the Korean people and the world revolutionary people, he said.

The Cuban people will always remain friends of the Korean people, he noted, expressing belief that the Korean people would build a thriving socialist nation at an early date and achieve national reunification at any cost.

Speaking next, Yang Hyong Sop said that every year Cuban comrades joined the Korean people in significantly celebrating the Day of the Sun, adding that this was an expression of boundless reverence for Kim Il Sung.

It is the invariable stand of the DPRK government to value and steadily develop the militant friendship and solidarity with Cuba associated with the noble exploits of Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il, he noted, stressing that the Korean people would as ever stand in the same trench with the fraternal Cuban people in the common struggle for independence and socialism against imperialism.