Pyongyang, November 16 (KCNA) -- Personages of Russia and Syria made public statements as regards the answers General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave to the questions by ITAR-TASS of Russia.

The general director of a Russia-DPRK joint venture company said in his statement on Nov. 10 as follows:

Kim Jong Il in his answers set forth guidelines for further developing ties with Russia and clarified the principled stand of the DPRK government on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula and the DPRK's relations with the United States and Japan.

We warmly congratulate his visit to the Siberian and Far Eastern regions of the Russian Federation and fully support his answers to the ITAR-TASS's questions.

We sincerely hope that the Korean people would tide over trials and register greater success in their efforts to build a thriving nation.

Saber Ballul, head of Department of the Political Faculty of University of Damascus of Syria, said in his statement on Nov. 9 that Kim Jong Il in his answers stressed the need to boost the DPRK-Russia friendly and cooperative relations and expressed conviction that the Korean people's cause of building socialism would emerge victorious.

The world progressives are sure that the DPRK will successfully build a thriving nation without fail as long as it has the great party, powerful army and stalwart people wisely led by Kim Jong Il as well as the nuclear deterrent for self-defence, he added.