Present there were Ho Jong Man, chairman of the Central Standing Committee of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), its vice-chairmen and department directors, chairpersons of Chongryon headquarters in Kanto area, leading officials of organizations and enterprises of Chongryon and Korean businessmen in Japan.

Present there on invitation were personages of political, economic, media, social and cultural circles of Japan, ambassadors and staff members of foreign embassies and representatives of international bodies in Tokyo and foreign correspondents.

Ho Jong Man said in a speech that the Korean people have made leaping progress every day in building a socialist economic power and highly civilized nation by thoroughly carrying out the tasks set forth by Marshal Kim Jong Un in his New Year Address and turned out as one in the drive to greet the 70th founding anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea as a grand political festival.

He held that for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and the improved inter-Korean relations the U.S. should roll back its hostile policy towards the DPRK and stop actions to ignite a war.

Japan has made no reparation still today 70 years since its defeat and even discriminated and suppressed Koreans in Japan and their descendants, the biggest victims of its colonial rule over Korea, he stressed.

He urged the Japanese authorities to draw a lesson from the past and set right the present wrongdoings and come out in real earnest to redeem the inglorious past and improve the relations with the DPRK in the spirit of the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration.