Present there were senior party, state and army officials, the chairperson of a friendly party, leading officials of party and armed forces organs, working people's organizations, ministries and national institutions, men and officers of the Korean People's Army, bereaved families of revolutionary martyrs, persons of merit and working people in the city of Pyongyang.

Kim Il, born into a poor peasant family in Orang County, North Hamgyong Province on March 20, 1910, joined the Korean People's Revolutionary Army and contributed to the historic victory of the great anti-Japanese war.

Holding responsible posts as vice-minister of National Defence, a military representative of the Front Command and chairman of the South Phyongan Provincial Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, etc. after the country's liberation and in the period of the Fatherland Liberation War, he made a distinguished contribution to the building of the revolutionary armed forces and the victory in the war and the strengthening and development of the Party.

He worked at such responsible posts as vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee, first vice-premier of the Cabinet, premier of the Administration Council and first vice-president of the DPRK in the period of the postwar rehabilitation and construction, the socialist revolution and the socialist construction.

Yang Hyong Sop, alternate member of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee and vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, made a report at the meeting.

Kim Il was a loyal revolutionary and a true patriot who took part in many bloody battles, upholding President Kim Il Sung from the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, and resolutely defended and upheld the Party and the leader in the annals of the revolution including the building of a new country, the great war fought against the U.S. and the socialist construction, the reporter noted, and said:

An excellent activist of the Party and the state and a loyal revolutionary soldier, Kim Il set a living example in remaining faithful to the President and General Secretary Kim Jong Il with pure conscience and noble sense of obligation, possessed of a transparent revolutionary viewpoint on the leader.

He was a steadfast revolutionary of Juche type and a paragon of true human beings as he was respected and loved by the people for his intense loyalty to the Party and the leader, devotedly service to the country and its people and precious feats performed for the era and the revolution as a political activist of the Party and the state and for his noble personality.

The reporter called upon all the officials, party members and other working people to learn from the transparent viewpoint on the leader of the revolutionary forerunners including Kim Il and become true Songun revolutionary comrades and ardent fighters who absolutely trust and devotedly protect Kim Jong Il and share the idea, will and destiny with him in the struggle to accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche.