The International Kim Jong Il Prize Council made public a decision to institute the International Kim Jong Il Prize on December 24, the 21st anniversary of his assumption of supreme commander of the Korean People's Army.

The decision said that Kim Jong Il was the great leader who devoted his whole life to the prosperity of the country and the people's happiness and the peerlessly great man who made immortal contributions to accomplishing the human cause of independence with his outstanding idea and leadership.

He was an outstanding thinker and theoretician and peerlessly political veteran who developed in depth the immortal Juche idea founded by President Kim Il Sung into the guiding idea in the era of independence, brought into full bloom ideal society which guarantees the dignity of human beings and their genuine life in the DPRK and encouraged the world people in their drive to realize independence, it added.

The council institutes the International Kim Jong Il Prize to glorify the great feats he performed for global peace and security, progress and prosperity of humankind, it stressed.

The prize will be awarded to prominent figures of political, social and academic circles and businessmen of all countries who made tangible contributions to the struggle for independence of the country and the nation, the realization of global independence and peace and the development of human culture, it noted.

The council will organize the work of awarding the prize, it said.