The participants in the meeting went to the statue of President Kim Il Sung in Chongjin City to lay bouquets and pay tributes to him.

Present at the meeting were the captain and crewmen of the Chinese flagged ship Tongmao-101.

Speakers at the meeting recalled that Kim Jong Il provided the north-south summit, the first of its kind in the history of national division, in June, Juche 89 (2000) and let the June 15 joint declaration was published to open up a rosy prospect for national reunification.

They extended high respects to Kim Jong Il, who made undying contributions to Korea's reunification.

Thanks to the efforts of the Korean people to implement the June 15 joint declaration, the railways, roads and air and sea routes which had been cut for over half a century were opened and inter-Korean visits, contacts, dialogues and cooperation were conducted briskly, they said, and went on:

The south Korean puppet authorities in collusion with the U.S. slandered the June 15 joint declaration, resorting to the confrontation with fellow countrymen and the moves to ignite a war, and brutally suppressed the progressive forces and political parties desirous of national reunification.

National reunification is sure to come as there are the dear respected Kim Jong Un, a peerlessly great man, successfully leading the cause and the strength of the DPRK people united close under the banner of the June 15 joint declaration, they added.

A letter to him was adopted at the meeting.