The editorial goes on:

That we parted too suddenly and unexpectedly with the great leader Kim Jong Il last year was the greatest loss our nation had suffered in its 5 000-year-long history and the bitterest grief our Party and people had experienced.

The great Kim Jong Il was an outstanding ideologist and theoretician, peerless veteran statesman and brilliant Songun commander who led the revolutionary cause of Juche along the road of victory by dint of his profound ideas and theories and unexcelled leadership, and a great patriot and the benevolent father of the people, who dedicated his revolutionary life entirely to his country and his people.

Thanks to his leadership our nation has greeted a golden age of its prosperity unprecedented in its 5 000-year-long history; the Juche idea and the Songun idea, the immortal ideas authored by President Kim Il Sung, have become the ideas guiding the era of independence, the revolutionary traditions of Paektu have been resolutely defended, and the might of our Party, army and country has attained the highest level.

When our revolution was undergoing worst trials and hardships, he steadfastly safeguarded the gains of socialism, valuable heritage the President had bequeathed, and consolidated the political, military and economic foundations for achieving prosperity for all the generations to come; this is shining as the greatest of his achievements in the revolutionary cause of Juche.