Choe Ryong Hae, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, first vice-president of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, said this in an address made at the national memorial service commemorating the 10th anniversary of demise of Kim Jong Il on Friday.

Choe Ryong Hae in his address said that the revolutionary life of Kim Jong Il is the shining one of an outstanding leader and peerless patriot who firmly defended the destinies of the country and the people and put socialist Korea on the position of a dignified powerful country by covering the stern untrodden path of history.

Kim Jong Il is the eternal sun of the people who will be always alive in the hearts of the people for his sacred revolutionary life and great revolutionary feats dedicated to the country and the nation, the era and humankind, the speaker noted, and went on:

It is one of the immortal feats performed by Kim Jong Il before the history that he firmly defended the socialist country of Juche founded and glorified by President Kim Il Sung.

The immortal august name of Kim Il Sung, the reverend august name of Kim Jong Il is deeply carved on the course of brilliant victories of the DPRK which has defended its rights and interests as a sovereign state and the dignity of socialism, smashing all the arbitrary practices, interference and aggression moves of powers.

There were many famous statesmen and strategists in the world, but Kim Jong Il is the only great man of the century and legendary hero as he saved the country and the nation and socialism, frustrating the unprecedented pressure and blockade in the fight against the imperialist allied forces whose territories, populations and economic and military capabilities are incomparably greater.

He created a history of victory of war in the only country on the planet that has been exposed to the unprecedented political and military pressure and economic sanctions for over half a century, and honorably defended the DPRK, the socialist homeland of Juche. His personality as a peerlessly great man is shining brilliantly in the hearts of the Korean people as a national hero and a symbol of the victory of socialism.

He made the country a dignified power by performing epoch-making miracles in building a thriving nation.

It is one of Kim Jong Il's immortal historic feats that he turned the DPRK into a single-mindedly united politico-ideological power.

He formulated the revolutionary idea of President

Kim Il Sung as Kimilsungism and set the idea of modeling the whole society on Kimilsungism as the Party's supreme programme. This became a turning point in building an invincible party united by one thought and purpose and in opening up a new age of single-minded unity.

The single-mindedly united DPRK which advances with one goal, one purpose and at one pace first emerged in history and fully displayed its beauty and inexhaustible strength thanks to Kim Jong Il.

He was an iron-willed commander who steered the trend of history while holding the formidable enemies at bay amid the upheaval of the times. He was also a tender-hearted man who was thoughtful of the people's pains and shed lots of tears, and a benevolent father who loved the young people and children of the country very much.

Another of his undying historic feats is that he consolidated the potentials for our state's independent development.

Always cherishing the noble intention and strong will of the President who held high the banner of self-reliance in the earliest period of nation-building and on the ruins after the war, he had worked heart and soul to build up the self-reliant defence capability and the solid foundation for the self-supporting economy.

Setting it as the supreme task of the nation to reunify Korea, Kim Jong Il made successive weighty decisions to put an end to the tragedy of national division, thus ceaselessly inspiring the enthusiasm for national reunification. He also smashed all challenges and obstructive moves by anti-reunification forces and opened up a new era of independent reunification advancing in the idea of By Our Nation Itself under the uplifted banner of the three charters for national reunification.

Kim Jong Il, a world-renowned elder statesman, set forth the strategy and tactics for realizing the global independence and made energetic external activities for independence against imperialism and for socialism, the world peace and friendship and solidarity among the peoples, thus considerably raising the international prestige and influence of the DPRK and making a great contribution to the accomplishment of the human cause of independence.

Kim Jong Il's sacred revolutionary career our people more deeply keep in their hearts with the passage of the times is an immortal biography of the greatest leader and the greatest man in the human history and a precious textbook of life and struggle to be always read by anyone who wants to be guided by justice, truth and patriotism.

To carry on the long journey of the revolution to the end generation after generation, the Chairman put forward the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, boundlessly revered and absolutely trusted by all the Party members, people and service personnel of the People's Army, as the guide of the Juche revolution and entrusted the future and the destiny of the socialist country and its people to him.

After the demise of the Chairman, the biggest loss to our nation, our people bade their last farewell to him, grieving over his demise in tears. But for the past decade they have never thought that he is not with them.

Our nation and state are as ever the great Kim Il Sung's nation and Kim Jong Il's Korea and all of us are the descendents of Kim Il Sung and soldiers and disciples of

Kim Jong Il.

No matter how much water may flow under the bridge and how frequently a generation may be replaced by another, we should always keep in our hearts the beaming images of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and remain faithful to the revolutionary cause of the great leaders to the end.

The cause of building a powerful socialist country, the revolutionary cause of Juche associated with the whole life of Kim Jong Il, will be certainly accomplished as the valuable revolutionary legacy bequeathed by Kim Jong Il shines as the eternal treasure and there is the tested guidance of the WPK.

Choe Ryong Hae called upon all to wage a dynamic struggle for a brilliant new victory of socialism and steady advance of the Juche revolution under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, holding Kim Jong Il in high esteem as the eternal sun of Juche.