The joint statement said:

On this anniversary we are longing for Kim Jong Il together with the Korean people.

He was the benevolent father who regarded believing in the people as in Heaven as his motto and found himself among the dear people while providing ceaseless field guidance for their happiness all his life.

He worked heart and soul to reunify the country.

Through his Songun revolutionary leadership he led the anti-U.S. standoff to victory, smashing the U.S.-led imperialist allied forces' moves to stifle the DPRK.

He, boundlessly admired by world progressives, was the great statesman who firmly defended peace in the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of the world.

His revolutionary cause is being successfully carried forward in all fields under the wise leadership of Marshal Kim Jong Un.