centenary of birth of President Kim Il Sung

Pyongyang, April 13 (KCNA) -- A consultative meeting of senior officials of the international preparatory committee for commemorating the centenary of birth of President Kim Il Sung was held at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang on Wednesday.

Present there were Co-Chairmen of the international preparatory committee Ibrahim Mantu, former deputy president of the Senate of Nigeria, and his party, Yousef Al Amiri, chairman of the Kuwait-DPRK Friendship Association, and his party, and Anders Kristensen, chairman of the Denmark-DPRK Friendship Association, Secretaries of the international preparatory committee Martin Lotscher, chairman of the Switzerland-Korea Committee, and Javed Ansari, secretary general of the Karachi Branch of the Pakistan-Korea Friendship Association, Raymond Ferguson, national secretary of the Australia-DPRK Association for Friendship and Culture who is vice-chairman of the Asia-Pacific regional preparatory committee, C.P. Mainali, general secretary of the C.C., the Nepal Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) who is chairman of the Nepali national preparatory committee, Sumiko Shimizu, representative of the Japanese Women′s Society for Solidarity with the Korean Women who is chairwoman of the Japanese preparatory committee, and Alejandro Cao de Benos, chairman of the Korean Friendship Association headquartered in Spain who is chairman of the KFA preparatory committee.

Also present there were Vice-President of the Presidium of the Supreme People′s Assembly Yang Hyong Sop, co-chairman of the international preparatory committee and chairman of the DPRK preparatory committee, Kim Jong Suk, chairwoman of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries and vice-chairwoman of the DPRK preparatory committee, Vice-Chairman of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries Mun Jae Chol who is secretary general of the international preparatory committee and the DPRK preparatory committee, and officials concerned.

The meeting informed its participants of the organization of national, regional and international preparatory committees to significantly commemorate the Day of the Sun in 2012 and their activities.

According to the information, preparatory committees were organized in many countries and regions of the world after the Pakistan-Korea Friendship Association in January 2008 called upon the organizations for friendship and solidarity with the Korean people to form preparatory committees on the occasion of the centenary of birth of the President and significantly commemorate the Day of the Sun in 2012 through colorful activities including seminar, round-table talks, exhibition and book publication.

The meeting exchanged views on the tasks before the international preparatory committee and national and regional preparatory committees to glorify 2012 as a year to go down in history along with the august name of Kim Il Sung.

A resolution of the consultative meeting of senior officials of the international preparatory committee which calls for commemorating in splendor the centenary of birth of the President as the great auspicious event of humankind was adopted.

The resolution underscored the need for the world progressives and the preparatory committees in various countries to intensify the diverse activities to commemorate the centenary of birth of the President as a great political festival common to mankind and hold an international joint meeting of the hundred-year history of Kim Il Sung′s Korea in Pyongyang on the Day of the Sun in 2012.

The resolution also noted that the birthday of Kim Jong Il, the outstanding leader of the human cause of independence in 2012, would be celebrated as a grand international festival.

It declared they would support and encourage the Korean people in their struggle to translate the desire of the President into reality and build a rich and powerful country.

A letter to Kim Jong Il was adopted at the meeting.

Pyongyang, April 13 (KCNA) -- Leader Kim Jong Il received a letter on Wednesday from the participants in the consultative meeting of senior officials of the international preparatory committee for commemorating the centenary of birth of President Kim Il Sung.

As the world recognizes, the President is distinguished thinker-theoretician, great statesman, prominent strategist and great sage with noble virtues, the letter said.

We will coordinate in a unified way the work to successfully carry out the resolution adopted at the consultative meeting and thus make positive contribution to conveying long the personality of the President as a great man who hewed out the human cause of independence and devoted his all to the sacred struggle for building a free and peaceful new world, it said.

We are convinced that the gate to a thriving nation will be opened in 2012 marking the centenary of birth of the President under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, it said, adding:

The international preparatory committee will fully discharge its mission and duty by making sure that colorful events praising the greatness and undying feats of the President are held on a worldwide scale with larger attendance.