Pyongyang, December 25 (KCNA) -- Lamberto Dini, president of the Commission for Foreign Affairs of the Senate of Italy who is former Foreign Minister, paid a condolatory visit to the DPRK embassy in Rome on Dec. 22 on the demise of leader Kim Jong Il.

He expressed condolences on his demise before the portrait.

He said that Kim Jong Il passed away all of a sudden at a very important juncture when the international prestige of the DPRK was rising and economic construction was making successful progress thanks to his energetic guidance, adding this was a great loss and pain to the Korean people.

He hoped that the Korean people would overcome the present sorrow and turn the DPRK into an economic power under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, true to the behests of Kim Jong Il.

He made an entry in the mourners' book.