Present there were senior party, state and army officials including Kim Yong Nam, Choe Yong Rim and Choe Ryong Hae, the chairperson of a friendly party, deputies to the Supreme People's Assembly, officials of the party, armed forces and power organs, working people's organizations, ministries and national institutions, service personnel of the Korean People's Army and the Korean People's Internal Security Forces, unconverted long-term prisoners and merited persons.

Also present there were the group of Koreans in Japan for celebrating the 64th anniversary of the DPRK led by Ko Tok U, vice-chairman of the Central Standing Committee of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, overseas compatriots and the chief of the Pyongyang mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front.

Present there on invitation were diplomatic envoys, representatives of international bodies and members of the military attaches corps here and their spouses and other foreign guests here.

A speech was made by Kim Yong Nam, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK.

He said the founding of the DPRK by President Kim Il Sung was a significant event that heralded the birth of a genuine country of people for the first time in the history of the Korean nation spanning 5 000 years.

Under the wise leadership of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il the DPRK has registered victories in more than 60 years of its history, strikingly demonstrating its dignity and might as a powerful and invincible politico-ideological power and a world-level military power, he noted, adding:

All the service personnel and people are making dynamic efforts to glorify the DPRK as an eternal country of the sun, the great Paektusan power, under the wise guidance of the dear respected Marshal Kim Jong Un by thoroughly embodying Kim Jong Il's patriotism.

Only victory and glory are in store for the DPRK advancing under the immortal banners bearing the smiling images of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.