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 the party, armed forces and power bodies, Cabinet, working people's organizations, ministries and national institutions, officials of the army and society who set examples in carrying out the behests of Kim Jong Il and the party's policies, labor innovators, delegations of overseas Koreans and other compatriots staying in the socialist homeland on the occasion of the Day of the Shining Star and the chief of the Pyongyang mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front.

Present there on invitation were diplomatic envoys and representatives of international organizations here and their spouses, military attaches of foreign embassies here and their spouses and foreign guests.

Kim Ki Nam, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), said in his speech that the life of Kim Jong Il is the one of the great revolutionary and a noble life of the peerless patriot who devoted his all to the country and people.

He called for holding Kim Jong Il in high esteem as the eternal leader of the WPK and the Korean people and the sun of Juche, devotedly implementing his lifetime intention and behests and thus glorifying his revolutionary career and feats for all ages.

All the service personnel and people will glorify the noble tradition of devotedly defending the leader generation after generation and take the march of Paektu to the last, building a fortress of single-minded unity around Marshal Kim Jong Un, he added.

He said that only victory and glory are in store for the DPRK advancing under the leadership of the Marshal.