Russian Ambassador to the DPRK Alexandr Matsegora hosted a reception on December 10 on the occasion of the ratification of the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation.

Present there at invitation were Choe Ryong Hae, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, Ri Il Hwan, secretary of the WPK Central Committee, Choe Son Hui, foreign minister of the DPRK, Jong Kyong Thaek, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army, Kim Yo Jong, deputy department director of the WPK Central Committee, and officials concerned.

Staff members of the Russian embassy were on hand.

Officials and members of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea from across the country made a study tour of the revolutionary battle sites in the area of Mt Paektu from December 4 to 10.

During the study tour, the participants laid flower baskets and bouquets at the statues of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il in the revolutionary battle sites and the city of Samjiyon.

They left Hyesan on December 4 and arrived at Pochonbo. They went round the command post of the Battle of Pochonbo, the police sub-station, the sub-county office and other places and toured the Rimyongsu Revolutionary Site and the Samjiyon Revolutionary Battle Site.

Students of Mangyongdae Revolutionary School toured the revolutionary battle sites in the area of Mt Paektu.

At the Pochonbo Revolutionary Battle Site, they looked round the command post of the Battle of Pochonbo, the police sub-station, the sub-county office and other places to deeply realize again the personality traits of President Kim Il Sung as the peerlessly great man who brought the bright dawn of national liberation to the Korean people.

They arrived at the Rimyongsu Revolutionary Site and looked round various parts of the site.

DPRK players established new world records and won gold medals one after another at the 2024 International Weightlifting Federation World Championships, bringing honour to the country.

Kim Il Gyong lifted 108kg in snatch, 141kg in jerk (new world record) and 249kg in total (new world record), and thus won three gold medals in the women's 59kg category on December 9. She is now holding world records in snatch, jerk and total in the women's 59kg category.

Meanwhile, Ri Ryong Hyon lifted 152kg in snatch, 197kg in jerk and 349kg in total and came first in jerk and total in the men's 73kg category.

The Chonghak Sanatorium has been renovated in Rason Municipality.  

The sanatorium, located at the foot of picturesque Mt Chonghak, is furnished with all conditions and environment for treating various diseases such as chronic gastritis and rheumatoid arthritis by using the Chonghak mineral water.

Sin Yong Chol, chief secretary of the Rason Municipal Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, and officials in the municipality looked round the remodelled sanatorium. 

Kim Sang O left an indelible trace in the DPRK’s history of literature.

His lyric My Motherland is still favoured by and widely recited among the Korean people.

The poem just reflected the poet’s inmost thoughts.

Mt Taesong, 270 metres high, has wonderful geographical features and is covered with evergreen pine trees and therefore the scene of the green forests of Mt Taesong in late autumn has been known as one of the eight scenes of Pyongyang since olden times.

It was originally called Mt Kuryong or Mt Ryong and got the present name after a large fort was built there to repel foreign invasion in the period of Koguryo (277 BC-AD 668).

There are a chain of six peaks rising like a folding screen on the mountain and two broad and long valleys with the long ridge of Jujak Peak extending southwest in between.

The Podok Hermitage of the Phyohun Temple located in Kumgang County, Kangwon Province, stands halfway up a precipice in Manphok Valley in Inner Kumgang, supported by only a 7.3-metre-high copper pillar.

It looks like a three-storey building as it was built by covering a single-storey gabled house with a 3.35-metre-long facade with a ridge roof and a shed roof in layers.

Premier Kim Tok Hun, who is also member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and vice-president of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, inspected the Hwanghae Iron and Steel Complex, the Taean Heavy Machine Complex and the Sariwon Tinning Factory.

Going round the Hwanghae Iron and Steel Complex, he stressed the need for it to conduct the trial run of the newly-built energy-saving oxygen heat blast furnace scientifically and technologically, so as to make a substantial contribution to the development of the country's metallurgical industry and the strengthening of the production foundations of the complex, and to steadily raise the practicality and efficiency of the establishment of the overall production process of the complex and its management system in line with the trend of metallurgical technology development and complete the planned readjustment and reinforcement as soon as possible.

At the Taean Heavy Machine Complex, he said that officials should further improve their leadership abilities to unconditionally carry out the task for the production of custom-built equipment this year and repair industrial buildings in a substantial way.