Present there on invitation were Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, Kim Sung Du, chairman of the Education Commission who is also chairman of the Korean Committee for Solidarity with Cuba, Kim Jong Suk, chairwoman of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, Pak Kun Gwang and Sin Hong Chol and other officials concerned.

The ambassador, addressing the reception, said that a new day broke for the Cuban people on January 1, 1959. Cuba has registered a lot of successes over the past 56 years, he added.

The Cuban people are proud of having friendly and cooperative ties with the hard-working and resourceful and heroic Korean people led by Marshal Kim Jong Un, he stressed.

Noting that Cuba would make positive efforts to boost the friendly and cooperative relations with the DPRK, he wished the Korean people bigger progress in the new year.

Yang Hyong Sop, speaking next, said the victory in the Cuban revolution was a historic event which opened the road of an independent life to the Cuban people who had been subject to exploitation and oppression for centuries, and proclaimed the birth of the first socialist state on the American continent.

He recalled that the Cuban people have advanced the socialist cause through a heroic struggle under the leadership of Fidel Castro Ruz and Raul Castro Ruz.

The Korean people are rejoiced over the successes made by the Cuban people in implementing the decision made at the 6th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, he said, adding they would always stand by the fraternal Cuban people in the joint struggle for the victory of the socialist cause for independence against imperialism.