Present there were Kim Yong Nam, Pak Pong Ju and other senior party, state and army officials, the chairperson of a friendly party, officials of armed forces and power bodies, Cabinet, working people's organizations, ministries, national institutions and city-level institutions, persons of merits, labor innovators, delegations of overseas Koreans and the chief of the Pyongyang mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front.

Present there on invitation were a delegation of the Russian Federation Council and a delegation of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation participating in the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of Korea's liberation, diplomatic envoys, representatives of international bodies, military attaches here and their wives and foreign guests.

Pak Pong Ju, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and premier of the DPRK, made a speech.

The 70th anniversary of Korea's liberation is an auspicious event of the nation in glorifying forever the revolutionary feats President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il performed by defeating the Japanese imperialists, achieving the historic cause of national liberation and leading the Korean revolution to victory, and in giving full play to the spirit and might of the country making a new history of prosperity under the leadership of the party, the speaker said, and went on:

The President led the hard-fought anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle for 20 years, defeated the brigandish Japanese imperialists and liberated the country in reliance on the driving force of the nation, and built a socialist power independent in politics, self-supporting in economy and self-reliant in national defence on this land.

Kim Jong Il led the unprecedented drive for defending socialism to victory under the unfurled banner of Songun and made sure that the DPRK demonstrated its dignity as an invincible political and ideological power and world-level military power.

The speaker underlined the need to realize the cause of national reunification without fail under the banner of the historic June 15 North-South Joint Declaration, true to the behests of the great leaders, and to expand external relations in the idea of independence, peace and friendship.

He stressed that bright is the future of the country making a leap forward with dynamism holding Marshal Kim Jong Un in high esteem.