The 1st Far East International Military Music Festival held in Khabarovsk, Russia last year vividly showed the attraction of the song as a paean for the sun and a worldwide hymn.

When the festival began with the military band of the Korean People's Army's playing of "Song of General Kim Il Sung" and "Song of General Kim Jong Il", all the audience were seized by the emotional feelings full of boundless reverence for the peerlessly great men of the DPRK.

"Song of General Kim Jong Il" has been widely sung in various places on the earth through centuries.

At a concert for the hymn "Song of General Kim Jong Il" held at a theatre of New York in December 1998, such voices of admiration were heard as "song for the best General Kim Jong Il echoing across the planet" and "a roaring thunder signaling that the DPRK is the centre of world politics and the new century is the century of Kim Jong Il".

At a TV concert held in Guyana to mark the 55th anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea the members of the police military band were applauded by the audience for excellently playing the hymn of the sun they specially prepared for a month.

The hymn was also resounded in the venues of events held at various countries on various occasions, including the opening ceremony of Kim Jong Il Library at Guayaquil University of Ecuador and inaugural ceremonies of the South African committee for marking the 70th birth anniversary of Kim Jong Il and the German Group for the Study of Songun Politics.

A memorial service for Kim Jong Il began in the UK with the playing of "Song of General Kim Jong Il" and all its participants' observation of 2-minute silent tribute to the memory of him.

On the first Day of Shining Star after his demise an unveiling ceremony of the sign of Kim Jong Il Class at Kuwazana Primary School No. 2 was held in Zimbabwe. At the ceremony the pupils sang the revolutionary hymn in chorus in Korean, touching the heartstrings of people there.

The hymn has been widely sung in many countries in the Korean language and in their local languages as evidenced by the production in Madagascar of cassettes on which "Song of General Kim Jong Il" was recorded.

The hymn for the sun was heard from the stage of the April Spring Friendship Art Festival, an international grand art festival.

More than 10 thousand radios, TV broadcasts and websites also aired the song of the sun.