In the joint statement, they praised Kim Jong Il as a paragon of popular leader who devoted all his life to the people's happiness, always finding himself among them.

Noting that February 16 this year is his 80th birthday, the statement said:

Thanks to his energetic ideo-theoretical activities, the Juche idea founded by Comrade Kim Il Sung could shine as the great guiding idea in the era of independence.

Comrade Kim Jong Il developed the Workers' Party of Korea into an ever-victorious guiding force, the DPRK into an invincible socialist state and the Korean People's Army into a matchless revolutionary strong army.

It would have been unthinkable without his achievements in beefing up the military force that the DPRK fully demonstrates its prestige as a world military power.

We warmly congratulate the Korean people on the victory achieved in the first year's struggle for implementing the decisions of the Eighth WPK Congress.

We are convinced that they will surely implement the decisions of the 4th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the WPK.