Present there on invitation were Choe Thae Bok, secretary of the C.C., the Workers' Party of Korea, Ri Yong Chol, first secretary of the C.C., the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League, and others. On hand were staff members of the Chinese embassy here.

The participants first watched a CD on which General Secretary Kim Jong Il's visit to the embassy is recorded.

Liu in his speech said that the Korean people have made positive efforts to fling open the gate of a great prosperous powerful nation by successfully implementing tasks set forth in the joint editorial under the leadership of Kim Jong Il and the WPK this year.

The Chinese people are rejoiced over the achievements made by the Korean people in socialist construction, foreign relations and other fields and sincerely wish them bigger advance in the new year, he noted.

It is the consistent strategic policy of the Communist Party and the government of China to steadily develop the Sino-DPRK relations of friendship and cooperation, he noted, adding that China would promote the development of the relations between the parties of the two countries on the occasion of the "year of Sino-DPRK friendship."

Choe said in his speech that the Chinese people have registered successes in building a harmonious socialist society based on the principle of people first and governance for the people and a scientific view on development under the leadership of the CPC with Hu Jintao as general secretary.

He wished the Chinese people greater success in their drive for implementing the tasks set forth by the 17th Congress of the CPC in the new year, too.

He expressed his belief that exchange and cooperation between the two parties and two peoples would grow stronger through the joint efforts of the two sides in the new year.