Last year, having lost too suddenly General Kim Jong Il, whom we trusted and followed as heaven, we bade last farewell to the father of the nation.
    The passing of the General, who made tireless efforts for the building of a thriving country, the reunification of the country and the accomplishment of the cause of global independence, leading the Party, state, armed forces and people along the road of victory in the van of the Korean revolution for scores of years, was the greatest loss to our Party and revolution and the bitterest grief ever experienced by the entire Korean nation.
    The life of Comrade Kim Jong Il was the most shining one of a great revolutionary, who, upholding the red flag of the revolution true to the cause of President Kim Il Sung, blazed the trail with iron will and super-human energy, and an ennobling one of a peerless patriot, who devoted his all to his country and his people.
    I was deeply moved by all the Party members, service personnel and people, who remained true to the noble sense of moral obligation during the mourning period with the grief over the death of the father of the nation and a surging yearning for him.
    On hearing the sad news that our General, who had been on an endless journey of super-intense on-site guidance until the last moment of his life, passed away on a running train, all the service personnel, people and overseas compatriots, unable to suppress the heart-breaking sorrow, shed tears of blood.
    Everyone across the country－the service personnel, workers, farmers, intellectuals, youth and students－visited the statues of President Kim Il Sung and the meaningful places where the portraits of beaming General Kim Jong Il were set up day and night braving biting cold, and burst out sobbing as they beat the land and their hearts.All of them expressed their deepest grief while mourning him.
    The tears of blood all our Party members, service personnel and people shed at the bier of the General were not merely tears of grief; they were also tears of firm conviction and determination to hold him forever as the sun of Songun and put his lifetime intentions and wishes into practice under the leadership of the Party.
    At the ceremony of bidding last farewell to him the people spread their overcoats on the road saying they could not have him in the snow and surrounded the funeral motorcade crying in tears, “Where are you going, dear General? You cannot go.” Watching them, I felt more keenly that there was no other people in the world like ours who sincerely support and follow their leader and that ours is really an admirable people as the General often said.
    I gained great strength and courage from and was deeply moved by the crystal-clear loyalty of all our service personnel and people who yearned for him more and more as the days went by and were determined to hold him up as the eternal leader of our Party and revolution.
    The days of mourning for him, during which our people highly displayed their boundless loyalty and noble moral obligation, were a good opportunity to give the world a clear glimpse of the true features of our society in which the leader, the Party, the army and the people form a great family in a harmonious whole.
    I extend warm thanks to all the Party members, service personnel, people and overseas compatriots, who deeply mourned the death of Comrade Kim Jong Il and have turned out as one with redoubled courage in the effort to fulfil his behests with earnest yearning for him.
    State and party leaders, prominent figures and progressive people in many countries also expressed their heartfelt condolences and extended deep condolences to us, upon hearing the sad news of the death of Comrade Kim Jong Il.I am very grateful to them for this.
    To uphold Comrade Kim Jong Il down through the generations and build a thriving socialist country on this land at the earliest possible date as intended and wished by him is a revolutionary duty and noble moral obligation of all the Party members, service personnel and people, his men and disciples.
    We should display utmost devotion and enthusiasm to build up the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in such a way as to give it a more solemn appearance befitting the supreme sanctuary of Juche and to ensure the highest level in carrying out the work of portraying President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il as the images of the sun.
    It is the unshakable will of our Party to carry out the instructions of Comrade Kim Jong Il unconditionally and without an inch of deviation and to invariably follow the road of independence, the road of Songun, the road of socialism, pioneered by the President and led by the General.
    I am filled with confidence as I am with many comrades, comrades-in-arms, whom the General trained with so much effort; I will demonstrate the inexhaustible strength of Songun Korea by surmounting difficulties arm in arm and shoulder to shoulder with the service personnel and people.
    Today we are faced with an important task to grow with great care and bring into a brilliant fruition the precious seeds which the General sowed through his lifelong, painstaking efforts for the building of a thriving country.
    We should fan the flames of the industrial revolution of the new century and the flames of Hamnam, both of which were kindled by the General, and rush forward by leaps and bounds one decade after another in order to achieve a series of signal successes in improving the people’s living standards and bring earlier the day when proud fireworks proclaiming the emergence of an economic power would be set off.
    I will devote myself for the sake of the socialist country and its people entrusted to me by the General.
    I firmly believe that all the Party members, service personnel and people, united with a single mind behind the Party Central Committee, would make more vigorous efforts to bring earlier the day when we would make a report of proud victory to President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il who lie in state at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.