The statement said that 2009 is the year of a new great revolutionary surge in which the Korean people should bring about a historic leap on all fronts in response to the call of the WPK to open the gate to a great prosperous powerful nation in 2012 that marks the centennial birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung.

It said:

General Secretary Kim Jong Il kindled the torch of a new great revolutionary surge in Kangson, the birthplace of the Chollima Movement, on Dec. 24 last year.

This was the same noteworthy event as the President set the Chollima Movement in motion in December 1956 and is a historic landmark as it helps strengthen independence in politics, self-support in economy and self-reliance in national defence.

The statement referred in detail to the fact that the editorial set forth the tasks facing the field of economic construction and the tasks to be fulfilled to augment the country's military power.

Korea's reunification is the supreme and urgent task for the Korean nation this year, too, it said, adding that the June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration are the landmark of reunification.

The statement said that the editorial solemnly declared: "We will never tolerate any slight deviation from the historic inter-Korean declarations."

The committee fully supports the joint New Year editorial of the DPRK and expresses conviction that the gigantic goals set forth in the editorial would be successfully implemented to bring about a revolutionary leap forward, it concluded.