Present there on invitation were Li Zhaoxing, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress, Wu Donghe, chairman of the China-Korea Friendship Association, and other officials concerned.

Ji Jae Ryong, DPRK ambassador to China, and staff members of his embassy were present there.

Speeches were made at the reception.

The DPRK ambassador said that it is the consistent stand of the Workers' Party of Korea and the DPRK government to steadily consolidate and develop the traditional DPRK-China friendship. He reaffirmed the will of the DPRK to make every possible effort to boost the bilateral relations and defend peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and the region together with the Chinese comrades in the new year, too.

The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the CNPC said that the Chinese party and government are attaching utmost importance to the Sino-DPRK relations. He stressed that China would strive to steadily develop 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 together with the Korean comrades in the new year, too.