The following are excerpts from it:

Hope-filled New Year Juche 98 (2009) that will mark a turning point in the Korean revolution and the building of a great, prosperous and powerful nation has dawned.

The DPRK that has emerged victorious under the banner of Songun has entered an era of a new leap.

Last year Juche 97 (2008) was a year of historic turn which had written a chapter of brilliant victory in the proud 60-year annals of the DPRK.

The Workers' Party of Korea put forward a far-reaching target to open the gate to a thriving nation in 2012 that marks the centenary of birth of President Kim Il Sung by representing the requirements of the developing revolution and the aspirations of the people and aroused the whole Party, the entire army and all the people to a new general offensive.

Last year the spirit of innovation was fully displayed throughout the country and remarkable achievements that would be etched in the history of the country were made on all fronts of socialist construction.

The sophisticated and seasoned leadership of General Secretary Kim Jong Il is the main source of all victories and miraculous achievements in Songun Korea. Last year, too, he stood in the van of our army and people, wisely leading their efforts to build a powerful nation, by giving full scope to his inexhaustible energy. His idea and theory that illumined radiantly the path to victory of socialism and the DPRK's prosperity were the great inspiring banner that gave the fullest play to the spiritual strength of our army and people. His ceaseless forced march of on-the-spot guidance to the army units and many parts of the country from the outset towards the end of last year was a long journey of patriotic devotion unprecedented in history. The invincibility of the socialist cause of Juche was demonstrated more convincingly in the current of the vibrant times and brilliant victories were brought about on all fronts including the politico-ideological front and the anti-imperialist military

front. This is a demonstration of the extraordinary leadership of Kim Jong Il, a great strategist and peerless statesman.

Last year the dignity and national power of the DPRK that made a great history under the banner of the Juche idea and Songun was fully manifested.

We fully demonstrated through the efforts to adorn the 60th anniversary of the DPRK as a grand festival of victors the invariable faith and will to add brilliance for all eternity to the nation-building exploits of Kim Il Sung who had built a strong socialist country, and bring the revolutionary cause of Juche to completion under the Songun-based leadership of Kim Jong Il.

All the people turned out in hearty response to the Party's militant call and made a dynamic offensive to bring about eye-opening changes in all the sectors.

Technological updating was carried out in the Chollima Steel Complex and many other factories and enterprises in the flames of self-reliance and such major projects as the Ryesonggang Youth Power Station No. 1, Wonsan Youth Power Station and Nyongwon Power Station were completed to build up the technological foundation and production potential of the national economy. Taehongdan and the Migok Cooperative Farm where the Party's intention is becoming a splendid reality clearly show the bright prospects of our socialist countryside.

Pyongyang, the capital of the revolution, was spruced up and the socialist fairyland was unfolded everywhere to change the looks of the country tremendously.

Under the Party's guidance works of national treasure value were produced in the field of literature and the arts and spectacular achievements giving pleasure to the army and people were made in science, education and sports sectors.

The New Year Juche 98 (2009) is a year of a new revolutionary surge, in which all the people should launch a general offensive in response to the Party's call to make a historic leap on all fronts in the building of a prosperous nation.

Kim Jong Il said:

"The whole country and all the people, as in those years of bringing about a great Chollima upsurge after the war, should launch a general offensive dynamically, sounding the advance for opening the gate to a great, prosperous and powerful nation, united closely around the Party with one mind and purpose."

Today we are at a historically important point in accomplishing the Party's revolutionary cause.

The efforts to open the gate to a powerful nation in 2012 that marks the centennial birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung are a worthwhile struggle to inherit the glorious history and traditions of our Party and revolution that started on Mt. Paektu and win an overall victory of Korean-style socialism by building up the national power of Songun Korea on the highest level.

An era of a new great revolutionary surge lies ahead of us. Kim Jong Il kindled the torch of a new revolutionary upsurge in Kangson, the birthplace of the Chollima Movement, on December 24 last year which will shine for ever in the history of Songun Korea. It is such a great event that has brought about a turning point in the development of our Party and revolution as that in December 1956 when Kim Il Sung set the great Chollima Movement in motion. Herein lies our Party's invariable will to build a powerful socialist country that ensures the eternal prosperity of the nation under the blue sky of our country highly dignified with Songun and hand it down to posterity by racing against the time in the spirit and the mettle of having overcome manifold difficulties and built on the war debris a strong country independent in politics, self-supporting in the economy and self-reliant in national defence through a great Chollima upsurge.

"Make the fullest development of Songun Korea by inheriting the great tradition of revolutionary upswing!" - this is the militant slogan that we should hold up.

The whole Party, the entire army and all the people should make a history of effecting a new surge in the 21st century by relying on our ideology and way of working and giving full play to the advantages of the independent socialist economy.

To make a leap forward on all fronts by displaying the indomitable spiritual strength and using all the potentials to the full that we have cultivated and built in the flames of Songun - this is the general orientation we have to follow.

A political and ideological offensive should be launched vigorously to demonstrate the might of ideology, our inexhaustible spiritual strength.

Today's general offensive in the ideological sector is a great campaign to display the might of our socialist idea to maximum by imbuing the whole of society with one ideology at a new, higher level under the banner of the Juche idea and Songun idea.

We should make redoubled efforts to arm the whole Party, the entire army and all the people with the Juche idea and Songun idea in line with the requirements of the present pulsating times. All the Party members and working people should solve all the problems arising in the revolution and construction our own way with the pride and self-confidence of having set the pace for socialist victory by dint of Songun, guided by the great ideology.

The single-minded unity is a main dynamic of our great history of effecting an upsurge and the leader-people-united strength is more powerful than a nuclear weapon. The glorious tradition of engraving an immortal heroic epic by dint of a harmonious whole in which the leader believes in the people and the people trust in and follow their leader absolutely should be inherited firmly. Today's great surge is a struggle to safeguard Kim Jong Il, the destiny of the country, at the cost of our lives and defend and add brilliance to socialism.

We should bring about a new revolutionary upsurge under the banner of guarding the headquarters of the revolution at the cost of our lives like our forefathers who had ushered in a great Chollima era in the post-war rehabilitation shouting the slogan of defending the Party and the leader at the risk of their lives.

The enthusiasm of our people who value the socialist motherland of Juche as their very lives and love it immensely should be displayed to the full. Our people are a strongly patriotic people who adorned the 20th century with miraculous achievements and upswings by taking ten or a hundred steps when others were taking one step; a revolutionary people who have defended socialism in the worst adversity and opened up the way to paradise.

We should redouble our efforts to add glory to the socialist system that is permeated with the desire of the anti-Japanese revolutionary forerunners and the blood and sweat of heroes of the Chollima era. All the people should join the strong current of the times in high spirits and become the pacesetters in the revolutionary upsurge and patriotic fighters in the Songun era.

We should fully apply the mode of struggle and creation of our style.

Collectivism and self-reliance are our peculiar mode of revolution and nothing is better than this.

We should make it an iron rule to solve all problems on the strength of the collective and by enlisting the inexhaustible wisdom and creativity of the masses. All the posts, units and fields should help and lead one another to kindle the flame of collective innovation.

Self-reliance is our strength and the key to a thriving nation.

We should always base ourselves on the socialist soil, develop our strength and open the route of advance to victory by relying on our resources, technology and the advantages of our system. At any time, in the future as well as the present era of advanced science and technology, we should constantly inherit the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance. We should live and fight in the staunch spirit and self-confidence with which we have defeated any formidable enemy and performed miracles on the debris.

All potentials of the independent socialist economy should be tapped to create the speed of general advance in the Songun era.

Today's upsurge is a fresh general onward movement to put the economy on the stage of rapid development on the strength of the revolutionary soldier spirit and science and technology. We have still myriads of obstacles in the way, but we are sure to win victory in the general offensive for building an economic power as there are the inexhaustible creativity of all the people and the powerful Juche-oriented industry equipped with new technologies.

An important task facing us in the economic construction at present is to push the effort to put production on a normal track and the modernization in close combination by taking advantage of the socialist planned economy, thus surpassing the high-water mark in production in all sectors of the national economy.

We should hold the preferential development of the metal industry as the main point and concentrate efforts on tapping production potentials in the key sectors of the national economy to the full.

The metal industry is the mainstay of our independent socialist economy. It is important to decisively increase the production of iron made by the Juche method and concentratedly supply electricity, fuel and raw materials to metal works, so as to make renovated production processes bring benefits.

Joint innovation should be made in the fields of electric power, coal and rail transport to promote the development of the overall national economy.

The power industry should channel efforts into running thermal power stations at full capacity and inaugurate hydroelectric power stations whose construction is under way as early as possible.

The coal industry should boost production. It is necessary to strengthen material and technological foundations of rail transport and organize and guide transport scrupulously to remarkably raise the railway traffic capacity.

The mining industry should develop promising mines on the principle of bringing profit and the machine-building industry should boost production and accelerate modernization. The chemical industry should increase the production of basic chemical products and accelerate the gasification project at the Namhung Youth Chemical Complex.

A radical turn should be brought about in the efforts to improve the people's living standard.

To relieve scarcity of food is a pressing problem. We should concentrate all efforts on hitting this year's target of grain production with the extraordinary determination to solve food problem by our own efforts in any circumstances.

We should give fuller play to the vitality of the Party's policies of improving the seed, doing double cropping and boosting potato and soya bean output and promote material and technological assistance to the rural community.

The fishery sector should develop the production of aquatic products, the seafood cultivation and fish farming to contribute to improving the people's diet.

Factories, enterprises and locally-run factories in the light industry and all other possible units should tap production potentials to sharply increase consumer goods production and improve commodity supply service to fully satisfy the people's needs for daily necessities.

The housing project in Pyongyang should be pushed audaciously and a radical improvement brought about in city management. It is important to build more structures of lasting value that embody the serve-the-people spirit and that are perfect architecturally. Land development including afforestation should be carried out in a far-sighted way, so as to turn the country into a more beautiful and better place to live in.

Economic management should be improved to give full play to the advantages of the socialist planned economy. The centralized and unified guidance of the state over the economic construction should be strengthened and planning improved in line with the requirements of the developing reality.

It is imperative to take a viewpoint regarding science and technology as the basis of economic development.

The nationwide scientific and technological forces should be concentrated on assiduously solving problems arising in strengthening the independence of the economy and stepping up modernization. Persistent efforts should be made to update production processes and the mass-based technological innovation drive conducted more briskly. Scientists and technicians should pick up projects that are conducive to national prosperity as the seed of their research and positively carry them out to lend wings to today's general advance for a surge.

The fullest development of socialist culture in the Songun era should be maintained.

It is necessary to add shine to the spiritual and cultural treasures created in the past under the leadership of the Party in the Songun era and conduct brisk mass art activities to make the whole country seethe with the revolutionary optimism and militant spirit.

The educational sector should better the content and methods of teaching and improve the qualification of lecturers to make great progress in the education of the younger generation and training of talents and raise the cultural and technological standard of the working people in keeping with the requirements of the IT age. Officials in the health sector should work devotedly for the promotion of the people's health and the production of basic medicine should be increased to give fuller play to the advantages of the socialist health system.

It is necessary to stimulate public interest in the development of sports, make sports mass-based and ensure that sportspersons register good results in every international game.

The might of Songun should be built up in every way to ensure a military guarantee for the building of a thriving socialist nation.

It is a major requirement of the Party's Songun revolutionary line to strengthen the country's overall strength and step up the building of a thriving nation on the basis of the unrivalled military power. We should continue to put utmost efforts to building up the country's military strength in line with the requirements of the prevailing situation and the development of the revolution.

The Korean People's Army is the mainstay and powerful main force of the revolution that supports the Party's Songun leadership in the van.

All military and political work should be aimed at establishing the revolutionary command system and military discipline whereby the entire army acts as one according to the idea, intention, order and instruction of the Supreme Commander.

It is important to speed up the revolutionary transformation of the entire army, ensure firmer unity between officers and men on the basis of comradeship and more closely combine military and political affairs. The KPA should take the lead in strengthening the army-people unity, the pride of Songun Korea, by holding high the slogan "Assist the people!"

The pivotal and pacemaker role of the KPA should be enhanced immensely in kindling the flame of a great surge in the Songun era. The KPA should make a breakthrough in today's general offensive as befits the creators of the revolutionary soldier spirit and be a model for society in all aspects of ideology, spirit, morality and culture.

It takes an uncompromising stand against those who hurt our sovereignty, dignity and socialist system. Our arms charged with class awareness and hatred against the enemy would never tolerate any act of provocation of the enemy but punish it mercilessly.

The habit of giving priority to arms, military affairs, should be established more thoroughly in the whole of society. Great efforts should constantly be put to the development of the defence industry as required by the line of economic construction in the Songun era and everything necessary be provided for it on a preferential basis.

All the people should acquire military knowledge with sincerity and effect a fresh turn in militia buildup this year that marks the 50th anniversary of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards.

Party organizations should further enhance their militant function and role in order to bring about a new great upsurge on all fronts of socialist construction.

Party organizations at all levels should make a turning point in the Party work as in the 1970s when they effected a great surge in all fields, full of emotion and joy of having held Kim Jong Il at the top post of the Party and revolution.

They should thoroughly apply to the Party work the great achievements he made through the Songun-based leadership for nearly half a century and intensify the work to establish the Party's monolithic system of leadership.

They should develop the Three-Revolution Red Flag Movement and launch ambitious information activities to make the revolutionary enthusiasm and spirit displayed during the grand Chollima advance prevail in the country.

All the officials should make thorough preparations and work out detailed plans of their units to make them advance dynamically in the van of great upsurge.

The working class is the maker of proud history of great leap and the main force in the building of an economic power. They should fully demonstrate again the stamina of the Korean working class who have exalted their honour as heroes who open up an era in each phenomenal period of the revolution.

Workers in Kangson should show off the mettle of the vanguard in the Songun era with the revolutionary soldier spirit and Kanggye spirit.

The theatre of the present general offensive is a living stage of the young people.

They should give full play to the heroic spirit of the Korean youth in every labour-consuming site including the construction site of the Paektusan Songun Youth Power Station, with a great ambition and ideal in the period vibrant with great surge.

Youth league organizations should thoroughly prepare all the young people as the reliable youth vanguard of the Party possessed of the spirit of defending the leader with their very lives, unshakeable faith in socialism, a high sense of duty towards the future of the country and noble moral traits.

Organizations of the trade union, agricultural worker's union and women's union should enhance their role decisively to ensure that all their members perform feats in the efforts for the country's prosperity like the standard-bearers in the Chollima era.

The country's reunification is the unanimous aspiration of the fellow countrymen and the supreme and urgent task for the nation.

The national reunification movement which had been advancing vigorously along with the June 15 reunification era faced a grave challenge due to the advent of the conservative authorities in south Korea last year. All the Korean people are indignant and protest at the reckless moves of the south Korean ruling forces that flatly deny the June 15 Joint Declaration and the October 4 Declaration, grand programmes for independent reunification, restore the era of fascist dictatorship and are hell-bent on inter-Korean confrontation.

The anachronistic confrontation policy of the south Korean authorities is on the verge of total failure and the anti-reunification forces are being driven into a tight corner. The aspiration and demand of the fellow countrymen cannot be the plaything of quack politicians who have turned back on the nation and nothing can check the advance of the times towards independent reunification.

The drift of affairs last year shows that national reunification can be accelerated only through the determined struggle against the moves of the partitionist forces inside and outside the country.

We should reenergize the national reunification movement this year under the slogan "Advance dynamically along the road of independent reunification under the banner of the June 15 Joint Declaration and the October 4 Declaration!"

The June 15 Joint Declaration and the October 4 Declaration, the action programme of the former, are the milestone of national reunification. We will never tolerate any slight deviation from the historic inter-Korean declarations. Whoever wants the country's reunification and national prosperity should defend and sincerely implement the declarations.

"By our nation itself" is the fundamental idea to be embodied in the national reunification movement. The June 15 reunification era that turned inter-Korean relations of distrust and confrontation which had persisted for over half a century into those of reconciliation and unity proves that "By our nation itself" is the noble spirit of loving the country and people that accelerates independent reunification, peace and prosperity.

To achieve the country's reunification, it is imperative to take a point of view giving priority to the nation and defending the interests of the nation. All the Korean people should resolutely check and foil the manoeuvres of the anti-reunification forces running counter to the trend of the times towards independent reunification, steeped in pro-U.S. sycophancy and hostility towards the fellow countrymen.

To achieve national reconciliation and unity is an urgent demand of the national reunification movement at present. Neither the development of inter-Korean relations nor the country's reunification can be expected when both sides remain hostile toward each other and the military tension is aggravated. The spirit of reconciliation and cooperation for independent reunification, peace and prosperity should prevail in the whole country and the reunification movement be promoted by the united efforts of the patriotic forces. The south Korean people, under the slogan of independence, democracy and reunification, should make more dynamic efforts to put an end to the fascist rule of the sycophantic and treacherous conservative authorities and remove the danger of war.

The independent foreign policy of our Republic to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and defend peace and security of Northeast Asia and the rest of the world is demonstrating its validity more fully as the days go by. Our Party and government, under the ideal of independence, peace and friendship, will develop relations with the countries friendly towards us and make a positive contribution to achieving the cause of global independence.

In the present world no other country is more politically stable than our Republic whose people are all filled with a great hope, ambition and confidence about the future.

Our cause is the cause of Kim Il Sung, the road we take is the eternal road of Juche, road of Songun, and our strength is the single-minded unity of the entire army and all the people around the leadership of the revolution. What stirs up the hearts of our generation is the historical mission to adorn with great victory of socialism of our style a-hundred-year history of Kim Il Sung's Korea shining with the Juche era.

The ultimate victory is in store for us as long as there are the plan for the bright future worked out by the great Party and the infinite spiritual strength of our army and people who perform miracles by turning out in hearty response to the call of the Party.