Pyongyang, September 21 (KCNA) -- Choummaly Sayasone, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and president of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, arrived here Wednesday on his official goodwill visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea upon the invitation of Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK.

Present at the airport were Kim Yong Nam, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, Choe Thae Bok, member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the C.C, the WPK, Kim Yong Il, alternate member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the C.C., the WPK, Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun, Ryang Man Gil, chairman of the Pyongyang City People's Committee and chairman of the DPRK-Laos Friendship Association, and Han Pong Ho, DPRK ambassador to Laos, and officials of the party and armed forces, ministries and national institutions.

Chaleune Warinthrasak, Lao ambassador to the DPRK, and staff members of his embassy were on hand.

The plane carrying the goodwill mission of the Lao people touched down.

He is accompanied by Thongloun Sisoulith, vice-prime minister and foreign minister of Laos and member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and chairman of the Committee for External Affairs of the LPRP, Bounpone Bouttanavong, member of the Political Bureau and secretary and secretary general of the C.C., the LPRP, Cheuang Sombounkhan, secretary of the LPRP Central Committee and chairman of the Propaganda and Education Ideological Committee, Phongsavath Boupha, minister and secretary general of the Presidency, Chansamone Chanyarath, member of the C.C., the LPRP and vice-minister of Defence, and other suite members.

A welcome function took place at the airport.

Choummaly Sayasone and Kim Yong Nam reviewed a guard of honor of the three services of the Korean People's Army and the Worker-Peasant Red Guards.

A Korean woman worker and a woman of the Lao embassy presented bunches of flowers to Choummaly Sayasone.

Pyongyangites warmly welcomed him.