Pyongyang, December 23 (KCNA) -- Jo Il Min, chief of the Pyongyang Mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front (AINDF), visited the Kumsusan Memorial Palace where the bier of leader Kim Jong Il is placed and mourned his demise.

There he said in profound sorrow: The news of the demise of General Kim Jong Il who dedicated himself to national reunification, the behest of President Kim Il Sung, came like a bolt from the blue.

How can the heart of such peerlessly great man stop beating all of a sudden?

At this moment of deepest grief when even the mountains and rivers seem to have lost their colors and time seems to have stopped going, the popular masses in south Korea are greatly shocked and overwhelmed with heartrending sorrow.

Mourning homepages for Kim Jong Il, chairman of the National Defence Commission, have been opened on internet to provide articles conveying bitter grief and major media are vying with each other to report news of mourning events.

Growing strong in various parts of south Korea are voices urging the "government" to dispatch a group of mourners to the north as well as to pay condolences over the demise of Kim Jong Il.

The whole land of south Korea is wrapped in an atmosphere of mourning the demise of Kim Jong Il who ushered in the June 15 era of independence and reunification.

His demise is the greatest loss to the nation and the bitterest grief of humankind.

He was the peerlessly great man and the heaven for the 70 million Koreans.

It was thanks to his broad magnanimity and decision and will as the commander of Mt. Paektu that the historic Pyongyang meeting was realized and the June 15 Joint Declaration could be adopted.

All compatriots will hold him in high esteem as the lodestar of national reunification and the father of the nation generation after generation.

He made a new history of accomplishing the cause of national reunification with his original Songun revolutionary leadership. His feats performed for national reunification will last forever.

Today, we have Kim Jong Un, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, at the centre of our nation.

The cause of national reunification is sure to be accomplished as we hold in high esteem Kim Jong Un identical to President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il.

The vanguard fighters of the AINDF and the patriotic popular masses will positively turn out in the nation-wide struggle to bring earlier national reunification under the banner of June 15 joint declaration.