The past five years during which the Koreans missed Kim Jong Il very much were a period in which they keenly felt what great man the nation had as the leader of reunification, he said, and went on:

The south Koreans always remember the beaming image of General Kim Jong Il who shed bright rays for reunification across south Korea.

Thanks to his invariable will for reunification and patriotic courageous decision, the south-north summits took place and the June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration were adopted and the new era of independent reunification guided by the idea of By Our Nation Itself was ushered in.

The Koreans still recollect the joyful days when severed railways and road were reconnected and sea route and airways were opened between the north and the south and reunification events common to the nation and south-north economic cooperation were brisk.

General Kim Jong Il opened a rosy prospect for achieving the national independence and realizing the cause of great national unity and had led the Koreans to the reunification movement with warm compatriotism until the last moments of his life.

That is why personages of political and social circles and patriotic masses in the south still now speak highly of the distinguished leadership ability and boundless magnanimity of Kim Jong Il who put the south-north relations of mistrust and confrontation on the track of reconciliation and unity and opened a new phase of great national unity, praising him as "the greatest patriot", "the most ardent nationalist" and "the best general".

His whole life is, indeed, the history of devotion made by the peerless patriot as he recorded a brilliant chapter in the history of the movement for national reunification.

His exploits will always go down in the history of the eternally prospering nation as he wisely led the reunification movement of the nation with his outstanding idea and leadership.