Rodong Sinmun on Thursday says this in a by-lined article.

All the Korean people have long upheld Kim Jong Il as the sun of their life, entrusting their destiny and future to him and remaining true to his Songun revolutionary leadership, the article says, and goes on:

It was the unanimous mind of the Korean people that they cannot live without Kim Jong Il.

During the 10-odd day official mourning period in December last year, about 260 million servicepersons and people visited the mourning stations across the country. And a huge crowd of people encircled the hearse bursting into tears on the day of bidding last farewell to him. These touching scenes impressively showed how pure and how sincere the Korean people were in upholding Kim Jong Il as the sun.

Meetings, art performances and festivals took place at the highest level to commemorate the 70th birth anniversary of Kim Jong Il.

The people devoted their all and showed every sincerity to spruce up the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun and erect the statue of Kim Jong Il. Work to build mosaics portraying smiling Kim Jong Il and towers to his immortality are under way in every part of the DPRK.

The Korean people have regarded the ideas and feats of Kim Jong Il as the eternal treasure of the revolution and directed every effort to thoroughly implementing his last instructions during nearly 100 days.

They have showed well their unshakable will to carry forward the revolution and construction as Kim Jong Il taught and the way he did despite whatever storm and stress.

It is the true picture of the DPRK that all the servicepersons and people are working hard for the prosperity of the country, greatly encouraged by Kim Jong Il's strong sense of patriotism.