Preset there on invitation were Xi Jinping, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and vice-president of the People's Republic of China, Wang Jiarui, head of the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee, and others and officials concerned.

On hand were Choe Pyong Gwan, DPRK ambassador to China, and staff members of his embassy.

Choe Pyong Gwan referred to the undying feats performed by President Kim Il Sung and General Secretary Kim Jong Il in founding the WPK, leading the revolution and construction to the path of victory and glory and strengthening the WPK into an invincible iron-willed party.

He noted that Kim Jong Il's reelection as general secretary of the WPK was an expression of the absolute support and trust of all the Party members and other people in him and a demonstration of the faith and will of all the servicepersons and people to accomplish the revolutionary cause of Songun to the last, united close around him.

It is the consistent stand of the WPK to invariably consolidate and develop the traditional DPRK-China friendship, he said, reiterating the will to make efforts with the Chinese comrades to boost the friendly and cooperative relations between the two parties, two countries and two peoples generation after generation.

Xi Jinping said that over the past 65 years the Korean people under the leadership of the WPK founded by Kim Il Sung built the people's power, defended the sovereignty and dignity of the country while overcoming all difficulties through a bloody struggle and registered joyful achievements by steadily advancing along the road of building Korean-style socialism.

General Secretary Kim Jong Il visited China twice this year, had with General Secretary Hu Jintao a wide-ranging and in-depth exchange of views on the issue of the Sino-DPRK relations and matters of mutual concern and reached an important agreement, recording a brilliant page in the history of the Sino-DPRK friendship, he noted.

China will join the new leadership group of the WPK in boosting the Sino-DPRK friendly and cooperative relations in the spirit of inheriting the tradition, facing up to the future, building good-neighborly friendship and strengthening cooperation, he concluded.