Attending it was Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, chairman of the DPRK State Affairs Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army.

Kim Yong Nam, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the C.C., WPK and president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly; Choe Ryong Hae, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the C.C., WPK, vice-chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and vice-chairman of the C.C., WPK; Premier Pak Pong Ju, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the C.C., WPK and vice-chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK; took the platform.

Present there were senior Party and government officials, the chairman of a friendly party, leading officials of armed forces organs, chairmen of the provincial Party committees, army and social officials, delegates to the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the DPRK, officials of the Party Central Committee, armed forces organs, ministries and national institutions, officers and men of the Korean People's Army and the Korean People's Internal Security Forces, officials of institutions and industrial establishments, labor innovators and working people in Pyongyang City, members of congratulatory groups and delegations of overseas Koreans, compatriots and the chief of the Pyongyang mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front.

Present there on invitation were foreign diplomatic envoys and representatives of international organizations and military attaches here.

Kim Yong Nam made a report.

Upon authorization by Kim Jong Un, he warmly congratulated all the service personnel and people throughout the country on the occasion of the 70th birthday of the DPRK, paying tribute to the anti-Japanese revolutionary forerunners, KPA martyrs and patriotic ones who laid down their precious lives for the cause for the freedom and independence of the country and the happiness of the people.

He extended his greetings to the fellow countrymen in the south and overseas compatriots, welcoming the foreign friends attending the meeting.

He said that the foundation of the DPRK by President

Kim Il Sung on Sept. 9, Juche 37 (1948) was the great historic event as he successfully realized the long-cherished desire of the Korean people to establish a genuine government of the working people.

He said that the Korean people were born again as dignified and powerful people who take their destinies into their own hands and that the country, once eclipsed in the world map, emerged as a fully-fledged independent and sovereign state in the international arena.

He noted that the country has steadily advanced along the road to the building of a powerful socialist country for seven decades since its foundation.

He also said that President Kim Il Sung and Chairman

Kim Jong Il set the Juche idea as the guiding idea of the state and built the country into superior and powerful socialist state, perfectly solving all the problems arising in the construction of the state and its activities through their indefatigable leadership.

He said that the history of the country is the one of victory as the country straightforwardly advanced without any slight line mistake and political turns and twists, the one of dramatic change as it brought about the greatest change under the most difficult conditions with the might of self-reliance and self-development and the one of creation as it set an example of the times in the building of a government centered on the popular masses, adding that herein lies the greatness of the 70-year long history of the DPRK.

He noted that the country has consistently adhered to the national independence and the state-building idea of the love for the people, which the DPRK flag reflects, in the 70-year long course full of ups and downs, and added that the state and the people are proud of it.

He said that the DPRK has dynamically struggled for the reunification of the country under the banner of national independence and the great national unity and made a positive contribution to the accomplishment of the cause of global independence, consistently adhering to the idea of the foreign policy -- independence, peace and friendship.

The DPRK is, indeed, the greatest patriotic legacy and the country of eternal sun, which was built and inherited by the President, peerless patriot and father of the nation, and the Chairman who devoted themselves to generations to come, he stated.

Noting that the DPRK has faced the prospering period for building a socialist powerful country under the guidance of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, he said, the Supreme Leader has wisely led so that the DPRK preserved the revolutionary nature as Juche-oriented socialist state and successfully implemented the patriotic desire of the great leaders for building a powerful country.

He appealed to all the service personnel and people to devotedly defend the Central Committee of the Party led by Kim Jong Un and strengthen the single-minded unity and the politico-ideological might, the strongest might of our state.

The DPRK government will as ever vigorously struggle for improvement of the north-south relations and national reunification, eternal peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and building of a new justifiable world, he stressed.

In the meantime, there took place similar meetings in all the provinces, cities and counties.