Present there on invitation were Somsavath Lengsavath and his party and Chaleune Warinthrasak, Lao ambassador to the DPRK, and staff members of his embassy.

Vice-Premier of the DPRK Ro Tu Chol, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Pak Kil Yon, Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade Ri Myong San and officials concerned were on hand.

Ro Tu Chol said at the reception that President Kim Il Sung and President Kaysone Phomvihane provided the friendly relations between the two countries.

It is the consistent stand of the DPRK government to develop the traditional and comradely relations of friendship and cooperation with Laos, he said, sincerely hoping that the Lao people would build a more prosperous socialist state under the leadership of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party.

Somsavath Lengsavath in his speech said that the friendly and cooperative relations between Laos and the DPRK provided by Kaysone Phomvihane and Kim Il Sung are steadily growing stronger under the deep concern of Choummaly Saynasone and General Secretary Kim Jong Il.

The party and the government of Laos support the struggle of the WPK and the DPRK to accomplish the socialist cause, build a thriving nation and achieve the independent reunification of the country under the wise leadership of Kim Jong Il, he stressed.