Thirty years have passed since President Kim Il Sung, founder and eternal leader of the dignified Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and benevolent father of all the Korean people, passed away.

The days and months since then constitute the decades of noble succession and great changes, in which the significance in world history of the greatness and revolutionary exploits of the peerlessly great man, who ushered in a new era of independence under the banner of Juche in the centre of the 20th century and created a new history of modern Korea, the first prospering socialist state in the East, has been strikingly highlighted in the world, and in which the Workers' Party of Korea and the people of the DPRK have achieved shining victories in accomplishing the great historic cause of building a rich country with strong army as desired by the President.

In those exciting days, his august name and sacred image served as a beacon that hardened all the people's faith in sure victory and indomitable will, and his revolutionary ideology and exploits served as a struggle banner teaching the ever- victorious strategy and as a solid foundation for steady advance and leaps forward.

At this moment of commemorating the lapse of 30 years of great immortality, not only the generations that grew up under his care but also all the younger generations who have grown up cherishing his noble image and august name in their hearts pay the highest tribute to him, recollecting with the deepest reverence the whole life of the great sage of the revolution, which will shine forever as a model of genuine life and struggle for all future generations.

A national memorial service took place at Kim Il Sung Square on July 8 on the 30th anniversary of demise of President Kim Il Sung.

The venue of the memorial service was filled with ardent yearning and deep mourning for President Kim Il Sung, the great revolutionary, the great man and the benevolent father, who dedicated himself to the country and the people, socialism and the sacred cause of global independence for over 70 years since he embarked on the road of revolution, and whose career was run through with the most devoted and sacred struggle rare to be found in the biography of any other world-renowned great man.

National flags were hoisted at half-mast at the flagstaffs of the square.

Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, took the platform of the memorial service.

He was followed by Kim Tok Hun, Jo Yong Won, Choe Ryong Hae and Ri Pyong Chol, members of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee, and other senior Party, government and military officials, leading officials of the Cabinet, working people's organizations, ministries and national agencies and persons of merits.

Kim Yong Nam, Pak Pong Ju and other veteran cadres who had worked in the Party, government and military for a long time were present on the reviewing stands.

Present at the memorial service were officials of the WPK Central Committee, Cabinet, working people's organizations, ministries and national agencies, officers and soldiers of the Korean People's Army and the Public Security Forces, officials and working people of institutions and industrial establishments, and youth and students in Pyongyang.

The opening of the national memorial service was announced.

All the participants paid a silent tribute to the memory of President Kim Il Sung with their profound reverence for him.

The national anthem of the DPRK was played.

Ri Il Hwan, member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the WPK Central Committee, made a memorial address “The sacred revolutionary exploits of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung will be immortal”.

He said that the Korean people have put their socialist country of Juche on the height of dignity and glory under the uplifted red flag of revolution, associated with the whole career of the President, for the past 30 years when a generation has fully grown up and the appearance of the country has changed beyond recognition. He added that today’s Korea, which is demonstrating to the whole world the greatest might and the highest honor, is a monument to the immortality of the leader, in which the President's plans and desires are being translated into reality.

The revolutionary career of the President was the one of a great revolutionary and a great man, who performed miracles unprecedented in history and created an immortal image to be remembered for all ages by devoting himself for the country and the people with his profound love for them, the speaker said, referring to the immortal exploits of the President who achieved glorious victories and performed epoch-making achievements in pioneering in all stages and domains of the revolutionary struggle with his outstanding ideology and theory, unexcelled leadership abilities and gigantic revolutionary practice.

The infinitely ennobling image of the President who will be with us forever is the immortal one of the people's leader, who laid a solid foundation for the happiness of the people and the prosperity of posterity by regarding it as his lifelong mission to believe in the people as in Heaven and devoting his all to them, he said, adding it is the highest honour and pride of the Korean people to have the peerlessly great man like Comrade Kim Il Sung as the eternal leader of our revolution.

It is the appearance and tradition peculiar to our state that the ideology and exploits of the leader who pioneered the revolution are carried forward most purely and perfectly, which cannot be found in any other country, he said, and stressed: We should continuously write the history of the powerful Kim Il Sung's nation and realize without fail his ideals for the building of a powerful country by bringing about ceaseless transformations and innovations in all fields of bolstering up the national power and building socialism true to the plan and intention of General Secretary Kim Jong Un, holding fast to Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism as our eternal lifeline.

Saying that the history of immortality of the President will steadily continue along with the dynamic advance of the Juche revolution, he called for working hard to attain the eternal prosperity of the socialist country shining with the august name of the President and bring earlier a new, more dignified and worthwhile life, in which the people's ideals and desires will come true, closely united around the ever-victorious WPK Central Committee with a single patriotic mind.

The memorial service ended with the playing of the immortal revolutionary hymn "Song of General Kim Il Sung".

A gun salute was fired in memory of the President.

The great gunfire shook the land of July for a long time, representing the unshakable faith and will of all the people to glorify for all ages the ennobling revolutionary career and immortal revolutionary exploits of the President.

All the participants paid a tribute of deep reverence to the President, further hardening their will to turn theirs into a great people's country and a powerful socialist nation under the leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, regarding it as an immutable truth that the great dignity and brilliant future of a powerful country are in store for the road of Juche opened by the President.