Expressing yearning for Kim Jong Il, the message said:

Comrade Kim Jong Il in his lifetime worked heart and soul to further develop the traditional China-DPRK friendship and fully promoted the development of Sino-DPRK relations while maintaining close friendship with the Chinese leaders.

The Chinese party and people will always remember him.

We are pleased that the Korean people turned sorrow into strength, united close around the Central Committee of the WPK headed by First Secretary Kim Jong Un and have achieved fresh and admirable successes in every field of socialist construction over the past one year, true to the last instructions of Kim Jong Il.

It is the invariable policy of the Chinese party and government to steadily develop the Sino-DPRK relations of friendship and cooperation.

The new collective leadership of the CPC highly values the traditional Sino-DPRK friendship provided and cultivated by the leaders of elder generations of the two parties and countries.

We will, together with the DPRK side, further consolidate, build and develop the traditional friendship between the two parties and the two countries and thus make positive contributions to promoting welfare of the two peoples and defending peace and stability of the region.