Attending the meeting were Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, Kang Ryon Hak, presidium member of the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea, An Kyong Ho, director of the Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, university presidents, college rectors and working people and youth and students in the city.

The action of youth and students in Kwangju was triggered off by the incident that took place late in October Juche 18 (1929) in which Japanese students molested and insulted Korean girl students on a Kwangju-Raju train. Korean youth and students stayed away from classes all at once on Nov. 3 and staged an anti-Japanese demonstration. They bravely fought against Japanese imperialist army and police hell-bent on the suppression.

This struggle rapidly spilled over into Pyongyang, Seoul, Sinuiju, Hamhung, Taegu, Pusan and all other parts of Korea.

Ri Yong Chol, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League, in a report said that the Kwangju student incident was an eruption of the Koreans' pent-up grudge and resentment at the Japanese imperialist aggressors and a mass anti-Japanese resistance to achieve the independence of the country and the sovereignty of the nation.

He continued:

This incident taught a serious lesson that in order to force the foreign forces out of Korea and achieve the country's independence and the nation's sovereignty all Koreans should unite close as one behind a great leader and it is necessary to combine the student movement with struggle involving broad masses including workers and peasants and develop it into an all-people struggle for national liberation.

It was not until President Kim Il Sung founded the immortal Juche idea and victoriously led the glorious anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle to realize the historic cause of national liberation that the desire of the Kwangju students and other Korean people for the country's independence became a reality.

The undying feats the President performed by building a socialist power, independent in politics, self-supporting in the economy and self-reliant in national defence, and laying a solid foundation for national reunification are shining more brilliantly thanks to General Secretary Kim Jong Il.

80 years have passed since the incident but the struggle for putting an end to outsiders' domination and interference and achieving sovereignty nationwide still goes on, the reporter said, calling upon all the Koreans to courageously turn out to accomplish the historic cause of national reunification under the banner of "By our nation itself."