Present there on invitation were Chen Zhili, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress, and others.

Choe Jin Su, DPRK ambassador to China, and staff members of the embassy were present there.

The DPRK ambassador said in his speech at the reception that the army and the people of the DPRK are bringing about a new great revolutionary surge on all fronts of socialist construction to open the gate to a thriving nation in 2012 under the banner of Songun after reelecting Kim Jong Il as chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK.

The DPRK's recent successful launch of the satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 was a great historic event which fully demonstrated the might of the country and made the first gun salute heralding the victory in the drive to build a great prosperous powerful nation, he stressed.

He wished the Chinese people success in the socialist modernization drive under the leadership of the Communist Party of China with Hu Jintao as its general secretary, reiterating the will of the Korean people to boost the friendly and cooperative relations between the DPRK and China.

The vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress recalled in his speech that President Kim Il Sung enjoyed the unquestioned support and reverence of the Korean people as the founder and leader of the WPK, the DPRK and the Korean People's Army.

Warmly congratulating Kim Jong Il on his recent reelection as chairman of the NDC, he wholeheartedly hoped that the fraternal Korean people would achieve their goal to open the gate to a thriving nation in 2012, the centenary of birth of the President.

He stressed that the Chinese people would steadily inject fresh energy and vitality into the Sino-DPRK friendship and join the Korean people in carving out a more beautiful morrow of the bilateral relations with the "year of Sino-DPRK friendship" as a momentum.