A meeting took place on October 13 to mark the 80thanniversary of the establishment of Kim Il Sung Stadium.

It was attended by officials of the Ministry of PhysicalCulture and Sports and officials and employees of the stadium.

Ri Yong Chol, director of the stadium, delivered areport.

We are commemorating the 80th anniversary of the establishment of Kim Il Sung Stadium at the time when we are stepping up the generalall-people advance towards the Ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea aftercelebrating in splendour the 80th birthday of the glorious Party, hesaid.

He described the 80-year history of the stadium as aglorious chronicle embroidered with undying devotion, painstaking efforts andlove of the peerlessly great men shown for the development of the country’ssports and the sports and leisure activities of the people.

He referred to the fact that President Kim Il Sungtook a measure for its reconstruction through decision No. 2 of the PyongyangMunicipal Reconstruction Commission in the hard postwar period and visited itsreconstruction site on more than ten occasions to solve all the problemsarising in reconstruction.

He said:

Chairman Kim Jong Il initiated its renovation andenergetically led the project for transforming it into a modern edifice ofphysical culture and sports. He took the measures of renaming the  then Moranbong Stadium Kim Il SungStadium and setting October 14 1945 when the President delivered a historicspeech on his triumphal return as its founding day.

On his visit to the stadium to attend the nationalmeeting in celebration of the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung on April 14 2012, therespected Comrade Kim Jong Un gaveprecious instructions on managing and operating it well. Later, he illuminatedthe tasks and ways to further spruce it up as he watched football matches withPyongyang citizens on different occasions.

General Secretary KimJong Un examined many formation plans and designs for its renovation andwisely led the efforts to renovate it as appropriate to the appearance of a civilizedsocialist country.

The speaker said that the stadium has made a positive contributionto the development of the country’s sports and the improvement of the people’ssports and leisure activities for the past 80 years under the wise leadershipand meticulous care of the peerlessly great men.

He called on all officials and employees to improve themanagement and operation of the stadium, true to the Party’s idea of attachingimportance to sports, and thereby further exalt the honour of it as a unitassociated with the leadership exploits of the peerlessly great men.

He pointed to the need for them to more vigorouslyconduct the socialist patriotic movement and revolutionary mass movements andconstantly build up its own scientific and technological force to modernizesports facilities and operate them at a higher level.

The speaker emphasized that all the officials andemployees should uphold the ideology and leadership of the great Party CentralCommittee in one mind and exert themselves more resolutely, more efficiently andmore intensively in the gigantic struggle for opening up an era of overallprosperity of the state.