A kick-off meeting of the expedition took place in the plaza before the statue of President Kim Il Sung at the Samjiyon Grand Monument on March 24.

The participants laid bouquets at the statue of the President and paid tribute to him.

Ryom Chol Ho, vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the Journalists Union of Korea, made a speech at the meeting.

He called upon all the participants to intensify the campaign for bringing a new revolutionary turn in newspaper-editing, news services, broadcasting and publishing as required by the period of great transformation and upsurge in socialist construction, deeply cherishing the revolutionary spirit of Paektu, and thus creditably discharge their mission and duty as the Workers' Party of Korea's ideological guards and buglers of advance.

At the end of the meeting, the tour group members went round the Samjiyon Grand Monument.