Working people's organizations held meetings on December 16 to commemorate the 13th anniversary of the demise of Chairman Kim Jong Il.

Present at the meetings were Kim Jong Sun, department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, Mun Chol, chairman of the Central Committee of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League, Jon Hyang Sun, chairwoman of the Central Committee of the Socialist Women's Union of Korea, officials of the youth league and the women's union, and youth and students and women's union members in Pyongyang.

At the Central Youth Hall, youth and students held a meeting to tell stories about the noble virtues of Chairman Kim Jong Il. The speakers referred to the undying feats of Kim Jong Il who paid close attention to the youth work and trained the young people into reliable successors to the revolutionary cause of Juche in the whole period of his revolutionary leadership.

Flower baskets were sent to the statues of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang on the occasion of the 13th anniversary of the demise of Kim Jong Il by the Central Standing Committee of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, the General Association of Koreans in China, the International Social Confederation of Koreans, the Social Confederation of Koreans in Uzbekistan, the Standing Council of the Korean Federation of Workers in Commerce in Japan, the Federation of Korean Economic Workers in China, the Central Standing Committee of the Korean Youth League in Japan, the Association of Young Korean Nationals in China, the Central Standing Committee of the Union of Democratic Korean Women in Japan, the Association of Korean Women in China, the Central Standing Committee of the Union of Korean Students in Japan, the Association of Korean Nationals in Dandong City of China and the General Association of Traders of Korean Nationality in Dandong City of China.

The flower baskets were laid at the statues of the great leaders on December 16.

On the same day, the art troupe of Korean schoolchildren in Japan placed a flower basket at the statues. 

Foreign political party, organizations and personages, families of those persons abroad who are related to the revolutionary activities of President Kim Il Sung and Korean residents in China sent flower baskets to the statues of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang on the occasion of the 13th anniversary of the Chairman's demise.

Laid at the statues on December 16 were the flower baskets in the name of the Central Committee of a political party of Tunisia, the Dandong city association for praying for immortality of the Palace of the Sun in China under the Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Il Foundation, the chairperson of the Anti-Imperialist Forum of Germany, Giancarlo Elia Valori, president of the International Group of Italy, the advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Forest, Fisheries and Environment of Equatorial Guinea, Honorary Vice-Chairman Sai Tiejun, Director Jin Xian, honorary directors Qiu Shuibo and Qiu Jianliang of the Board of Directors of the Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Il Foundation and members Lin Gennan, Jin Chengwu, An Pingnan, Guo Deli, Liang Zhengxiong, Zhao Dexia, Cui Tongjun, Fang Hua, Jia Desheng, Tang Yiming and Cui Yan of the foundation, Tian Yuanshuang, manager of the Shandong Provincial Rizhao Fengchuan International Mining Trade Co. Ltd. of China, Luan Zhiwei, managing director of the Liaoning Provincial Jiuxin Construction Co. Ltd. of China, Wang Lidong, manager of  the Chengbao Trade Co. Ltd. in Dandong of China, the family of Zhang Weihua, Chinese related to the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, the family of Hwang Paek Ha, a Korean in China related to the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, Kim Kyong Su, chairman of the Federation of Korean Economic Workers in China, Pang Yong Son, vice-chairman of the Association of Young Korean Nationals in China, members Ju Kye Suk, Kim Yong Ok, Kim Il Nam, Ryang Kum Hae, Yang Myong Sil and Yang Won of the Federation of Korean Economic Workers in China, Kim Song Mi, member of the Association of Young Korean Nationals in China, Kim Kum Hui, member of the Dandong City Branch of the General Association of Koreans in China, Phyo Song Ryong, chairman of the Association of Korean Businessmen in China, Kil Kyong Gap, chairman of the Association of Korean Nationals in Shenyang City of China, Sim Chong Song, chairperson of the Association of Korean Nationals in Dandong City of China, the family of Choe Su Jin, a Korean resident in China, Manager Ri Hwang and Deputy Manager Ri Kil of the Jiangshan Co. Ltd., Li Chengri, director of the Yanji City Mengduomei Tourist Resort Co. Ltd., Jin Xianghe, manager of the Tumen City Sanchuan External Economic Trade Co. Ltd., Jin Nanzhe, manager of the Beijing Jinmeng Future Cultural Media Co. Ltd., Cheng Baidao, general manager of the Shenyang Chengda Business Co. Ltd., Piao Shanhu, general manager of Dandong Huixing Economic Trading Co. Ltd. of China, Piao Zian, general manager of the Liaoning Huali Business Co. Ltd., Cui Kuizhe, general manager of the Yingkou Shengfeng Commodity Exchange Co. Ltd., and his wife Cui Yuji, Zheng Yongcan, managing director of the Shengyang Taiqi International Business Co. Ltd., Cui Aishun, general manager of the Dandong Shuncheng Trade Co. Ltd., Choe Kol, general manager of the Sobaeksu Culture Proliferation Co. Ltd. in Liaoning Province of China, Song Haojie, director of the Hunchun City Ouya Hospital, Jin Eushu, general manager of the Dandong City Longshung Trade Co. Ltd., Li Chengxue, general manager of the Dandong Chengbao Commerce Trade Co. Ltd., Li Honglin, general manager of the Shenzhen City Zhongchuan Automatic Equipment Co. Ltd., Lu Yongzhe, general manager of the Juncheng Shijia Management and Consultation (Beijing) Co. Ltd. of China, Kang Yongguo, general manager of the Liaoning Shenghan Trade Co. Ltd., Ma Gewen, general manager of the Dandong Yonglian Trade Co. Ltd., and Wen Changhuan, managing director of the Dandong Chengbao Commerce Trade Co. Ltd.

That day flower baskets were placed at the statues by Honorary Director Cui Tongwen of the Board of Directors of the Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Il Foundation and its member Wang Shuli, Cai Xiaobing, general manager of the Tangshan Haihang Hengyu Commerce Trade Co. Ltd. of China, and Choe Ryong Ho, vice-rector of Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. 

The Tokchon Holiday Camp of the Tokchon Area Coal-mining Complex was successfully built and inaugurated.

The holiday camp, with a camp building and facilities like a multi-functional gymnasium, is provided with all conditions and environment for coal miners' rest and leisure activities on holidays.

An inauguration ceremony took place on December 15.

Study tour groups are streaming to Mt Paektu where the Korean revolution started.

President Kim Il Sung led the arduous and fierce anti-Japanese armed struggle to victory, centring on the mountain, to achieve the historic cause of Korea’s liberation and establish the great revolutionary tradition to be reliably carried forward by the Korean people for ever.

According to data available, more than 1 000 officials and working people of dozens of units toured the revolutionary battle sites in the Mt Paektu area in early November, when the study tour in the winter of this year started.

Shortly ago, the national exhibition of sci-tech achievements in the measuring sector-2024 took place at the Sci-Tech Complex in Pyongyang under the sponsorship of the State Commission of Science and Technology.

It is the first time for the measuring sector to independently hold such an exhibition with its theme on a nationwide scale.

Put on display at the recent exhibition, which was held on the theme of “Economic development and measuring”, were over 320 measuring instruments and models of sci-tech plans which were developed and introduced at home.

More than 150 species of animals have brought forth over 1 000 younglings this year at the Central Zoo, a base for cultural and leisure activities of the people.

The most pleasing news is that Korean tigers have had a litter of eight cubs this year.

“They reproduced three in March, four in July and another one in October,” said Kim Sun Ok, Merited Keeper at the tiger house of the zoo, describing it as an unprecedentedly happy event.

Seesawing is one of the excellent folk games of the Korean nation with a long history.

People play it at both ends of a long board with a wooden prop placed at the centre. They jump up and land on the board alternately by using the elastic force and compete to see who jumps up higher.

Since olden times, women in national costumes have enjoyed the play on New Year’s Day and Jongwoldaeborum (the fifteenth day of the first month by the lunar calendar), or the first full moon day.

The director of the Russian external intelligence agency Sergey Narishkin asserted in a recent interview with the magazine “Intelligence Agent” that the US will be faced with a period of tragic civil war as its “mightiness” is declining.

He said that the US and the UK are having a nervous breakdown because they are losing their domination over the world and that is why they are switching to open terrorism.

Saying that even the allies of the US are requesting Russia not to give up the Ukrainian issue halfway, he stressed that the US is losing the initiative in all directions from the Middle East to Asia and Africa and is suffering a heavy defeat in the post-USSR space.