Pak Thae Song, premier of the Cabinet of the DPRK, received a congratulatory message from Li Qiang, premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, on January 9.

The message extended the sincere congratulations to Pak Thae Song on his appointment as premier of the DPRK Cabinet on behalf of the Chinese government.

Saying that China and the DPRK are the friendly neighbours linked by the same mountain and rivers, it stressed that General Secretary Xi Jinping and General Secretary Kim Jong Un have jointly led and propelled the development of the China-DPRK relations.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un sent a birthday spread to Kim Hae Nam, a woman centenarian living in neighbourhood unit No. 37, Tongsan-dong No. 2, Rangnang District, Pyongyang.

After receiving the birthday spread amid congratulations by officials of the Rangnang District Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and villagers, the woman centenarian expressed deep gratitude to Kim Jong Un, saying that she has lived for a hundred years thanks to the benevolent socialist system.

With a resolve to repay the benevolence of the Party which put her forward as a child of revolutionary martyr and a full-fledged official of the country, she had worked hard at her revolutionary post to implement the Party's policies for decades and done good things such as helping railway workers even after becoming a pensioner.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un sent a birthday spread to Jang So Jo, a woman centenarian living in neighbourhood unit No. 10 of Sangso-ri, Hyangsan County, Jagang Province, on her 100th birthday.

Officials of the Hyangsan County Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, her relatives and neighbours visited her family to congratulate her.

She expressed gratitude to Kim Jong Un for his great loving care to be handed down through generations.

The art troupe of Korean schoolchildren in Japan headed by Mun Pong Su, principal of Kyoto Korean Middle and High School, left Pyongyang by air on January 11.   

The first ten-day plans of the new year were carried out by different sectors and units of the national economy.

The workers of the Sangwon Cement Complex are in the vanguard of the all-people general advance of this year for implementing the decisions of the Eleventh Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.

Workers in the field of metallurgical industry carried out their first ten-day iron and steel production plan for the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry.

The Sangwon Cement Complex has increased its output of clinker and cement by 5 percent and 14 percent respectively every day from the outset of the year up to now as compared with the same period of last year when it surpassed the peak year level.

Upon hearing the news of the Eleventh Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea held in late December last year, the workers of the complex presented a letter reflecting their determination to take the lead in the drive for increased production to the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un who firmly believed in them and put them forward on the outpost of the grand socialist construction.

The goal for increased cement production they pledged in the letter amounts to ten times of the quantity of cement increased by them last year. This high goal is a huge one that can never be attained by the existing conception and method even at the complex which has surpassed the peak year level several times since its operation in recent years.

The field of education is elaborating the plan for making a substantial improvement of education this year, true to the idea and spirit of the Eleventh Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.

Officials of the Ministry of Education and relevant units have proposed measures for constantly improving the educational work and held in-depth discussions of issues.

Universities at all levels have taken practical measures to implement the new education programme and train students as competent talents.

The 554th triplets (two daughters and one son) and the 555th triplets (three sons) were born at Pyongyang Maternity Hospital in the DPRK.

Their mothers live in Simchon-dong, Kanggye of Jagang Province, and Songsa-ri, Pyoktong County of North Phyongan Province.

Medical workers took timely measures to ensure the safe birth of the triplets.

A new sci-tech library has been built in Kaesong Municipality.

The modern library with conditions for information service, seminar, dissemination and exhibition, built at the foot of Mt Janam, provides another powerful base for implementing the policy of the Workers' Party of Korea on making all the people well versed in science and technology.

An inauguration ceremony of the Kaesong Municipal Sci-tech Library took place on January 10.