Attending it were Minister of Railways Jon Kil Su, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Kung Sok Ung, Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade Ri Myong San and others, officials in the field of railways, working people in the city, a delegation of the "Russian Railways" Company headed by its President V.I. Yakunin, Governor of the Administration of Maritime Territory of the Russian Federation Sergei Darkin, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Aleksei Borodavkin, officials concerned with railways and other Russian guests, Russian Ambassador to the DPRK Valery Sukhinin and diplomatic envoys of different countries here.

The president of the company said at the ceremony that the plan for the reconstruction of Rajin-Khasan railways, a result of the meeting of the top leaders of the two countries in 2001, has entered a phase of its implementation at last thanks to the positive cooperation of officials in the field of railways in the countries.

Referring to the fact that the experimental stage of the large project for connecting the Trans-Siberian Railroad with the Trans-Korean Railways is drawing the attention of different countries, he expressed the belief that the railway organs of the two countries would steadily boost the mutually beneficial cooperation in the future, too, to complete the project as quickly as possible.

Jon Kil Su spoke next.

He said that it was of weighty importance to hold the above-mentioned ceremony in the run-up to the 60th anniversary of the opening of diplomatic ties between the DPRK and Russia.

The railways between Rajin and Khasan will serve as a land transport route of friendship commonly contributing to economy and transport of the two countries and improving the welfare of the two peoples and, furthermore, they have a bright prospect of developing into an excellent international transport route for reliably ensuring the transport between Asia and Europe, he noted.

Aleksei Borodavkin and Sergei Darkin made congratulatory speeches at the ceremony.

The inaugural work of laying composite railways took place and a monument to mark the ceremony was unveiled.

The government of the DPRK hosted a reception on the above-said occasion on the same day.