Present there were Kim Ki Sok, chairman of the State Commission for Economic Development, officials concerned, soldiers, builders, Huang Shizai, president and general manager of the Great China International Group, and his entourage, Yang Zuoyuan, economic and commercial councilor of the Chinese embassy here.

Lieutenant General of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Gwan made a speech at the ceremony.

He said one more large commercial service base will be built in east Pyongyang.

He called on builders of the two countries to successfully build the shopping mall on the principle of strengthening cooperation and unity and thus contribute to hardening the bonds of friendship between the two countries.

Zheng Chunjia, vice-president of the Chinese Group, made a congratulatory speech.

He paid deep respects to Marshal Kim Jong Un on behalf of the Group.

China and Korea are friendly neighbors linked by the same rivers and mountain, he said. The friendly relations provided by the preceding leaders of the two countries are being invariably and steadily carried forward.

He hoped that the shopping mall will be successfully built to be conducive to improving the standard of the Korean people's living.

The construction began after the ceremony.