The New Year cards came from Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and president of the Republic of Cuba, and Raul Castro Ruz, Bashar Al-Assad, president of the Syrian Arab Republic, and his wife, Emomali Rahmon, president of the Republic of Tajikistan, Rumen Radev, president of the Republic of Bulgaria, and his wife, Muhammadu Buhari, president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, and his wife, Kais Saied, president of the Republic of Tunisia, and Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, president of the Republic of Uganda, and his wife.

He also received New Year cards from a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the C.C., Communist Party of China (CPC), the head of the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee, the secretary general of the International Kim Il Sung Prize Council and the International Kim Jong Il Prize Council, the co-chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Il Foundation, the director-general of UNESCO and the director of the Regional Office for Southeast Asia of the WHO.