Present there were senior party, army and state officials, deputies to the Supreme People's Assembly, officials of party, armed forces and power organs, public organizations, ministries and national institutions, servicepersons, officials of scientific, educational, cultural and art, public health and press organs, labor innovators and working people in the city of Pyongyang.

Vice Marshal of the Korean People's Army Kim Yong Chun, vice-chairman of the NDC and minister of the People's Armed Forces, made a report at the meeting.

The reporter said that Kim Jong Il's election as NDC chairman of the DPRK was a historic event of weighty significance in the work for the prosperity of the socialist country and the accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of Juche.

This great auspicious event noteworthy in the history of the nation provided the servicepersons and people with a sure guarantee for successfully carrying forward and developing President
Kim Il Sung's idea and exploits for the self-reliant national defence building and his unique cause of nation building and more dynamically accelerating the all-people movement for building a rich and powerful country, he noted, and went on to say:

Kim Jong Il gave a power guarantee for further cementing the Korean-style state and social system on the principle of attaching priority to the military affairs and pursuing the Songun politics in all aspects by seeing to it that the position and authority of the NDC were enhanced and a new state machinery with the NDC as its mainstay established.

Today we should vigorously effect a new great revolutionary surge by giving full play to the inexhaustible mental power under the Songun revolutionary leadership of Kim Jong Il and thus make a historic leaping forward in building a great prosperous and powerful nation and accelerate the national reunification and the ultimate victory of the revolutionary cause of Juche.

Sustained, big efforts should be directed to increasing the national defence capabilities under the banner of Songun so as to provide a reliable military guarantee for the building of a thriving socialist nation.

The Korean People's Army, the main force of our revolution and the hardcore forces for defending the country, should establish the revolutionary commanding system and the military discipline in which the whole army acts as one in the idea and intention of the Supreme Commander and on his order and instruction under the slogan "Let us defend with our very lives the leadership of revolution headed by the great Comrade Kim Jong Il!"

We should continue to push ahead with the work for increasing the national defence capability as a nationwide and all-people undertaking, give priority to the development of the defence industry in keeping with the requirement of the line of economic construction in the era of Songun and provide on the most preferential basis everything needed to steadily raise the level of making the defence industry Juche-oriented and modern, thus cementing the material and technical foundations of the self-defensive military capability.

The traits of attaching importance to the military affairs should be established in the whole society and the army-people unity in idea and working spirit successfully realized so as to fully display the proud picture of the great unity between the army and the people in Songun Korea. And the Workers' Party of Korea's line of placing all the people under arms and fortifying the whole country should be implemented to the letter to make perfect preparations for coping with the event of contingency.

All the sectors and units should establish the strict discipline whereby to unconditionally accept any order and instruction of the NDC and implement them without fail in time and thus reliably ensure
Kim Jong Il's monolithic leadership over the national defence-related affairs and give full play to the might of the Korean-style state machinery with the main stress put on the national defence.

We should resolutely smash the outsiders' interference and the separatists' confrontation moves and bring about a radical turn in the movement for national reunification, true to the three charters for national reunification that comprehend the noble patriotic idea of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

Victory and glory are always in store for the army and the people of the DPRK dynamically advancing toward the eminence of a great prosperous and powerful socialist nation along the road of Juche, the road of Songun, rallied as one in mind around the headquarters of the revolution led by Kim Jong Il, the reporter concluded.