Its announcement has given great pleasure to the Korean people.

Vice-Minister of Metal Industry Kim Han Il told KCNA:

Kim Jong Il was a peerlessly great man who performed undying feats for accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of Juche by leading the WPK to victory for scores of years.

Kim Jong Il considered it to be his lifelong duty to make the WPK President Kim Il Sung's party. Under his guidance the WPK turned into the party that secured the singleness of ideology and leadership and enjoyed absolute support and trust of broad masses, with its roots taken deep into the masses.

In particular, he successfully settled the issue of continuity to the leadership, thus laying a solid foundation for the strengthening and development of the party and the accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of Juche.

A department director of the Ministry, Kim Hwang Ho, said:

It is the strong will of the Korean people to hold Kim Jong Il in high esteem as the eternal general secretary of the WPK.

Giving priority to military affairs, he firmly defended the country, the revolution and socialism in unprecedented adversity and turned the DPRK into a military power and a full-fledged nuclear state.

The feats he performed in the efforts to lay a sound economic foundation for building of a thriving nation will be handed down through generations.