Present there were KPA Vice Marshal Hwang Pyong So, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, vice-chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and director of the General Political Bureau of the KPA, KPA Vice Marshal Ri Myong Su, chief of the General Staff of the KPA, Army General Pak Yong Sik, minister of the People's Armed Forces, and other commanding officers of the KPA.

There took place a ceremony of the Military Band of the KPA.

All the participants paid high tribute to the portraits of smiling President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il.

A twenty-one-gun salute was fired.

Hwang Pyong So made a speech paying high tribute to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and vowing to remain loyal to Kim Jong Un.

The speaker said Kim Il Sung founded and successfully embodied the immortal Juche idea and Songun idea, worked such a miracle as defeating the most ferocious U.S. and Japanese imperialists in one generation and built a socialist power independent in politics, self-supporting in economy and self-reliant in national defence on this land.

Kim Jong Il, hewing out the thorny path of the Songun revolution, won a series of victories in the struggle for defending socialism and in the confrontation with the U.S. and laid an eternal foundation for the prosperity of the posterity by dedicating himself to the country, the speaker said.

He made a pledge of the faith and will of all the service personnel to hold Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in high esteem as the eternal leaders of the party and the people and bring earlier the day of the final victory under the leadership of Kim Jong Un.

There was a march-past of the officers and men of the Army, Navy and Air and Anti-Air Force of the KPA and cadets of the military academies at all levels and students of revolutionary schools at the plaza.