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Comradedelegates to the celebrations of the 80th founding anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea,
Dear Pyongyang citizens and overseas compatriots,
Dear foreign friends celebrating this holiday with us,
Today, as we mark the 80th anniversary of our Party, we are celebrating this historic holiday with a grand meeting and looking back once again upon the sacred 80 years. This is an expression of a sublime and sincere tribute our generation pays to the great Party-founding generation who brought about an epochal change in shaping the destiny of our country and people.
In the midst of the struggle to truthfully carry forward and develop the original ideals and spirit of the Party, a dignified and powerful socialist state, faithful to the dreams and ideals of the people, has been built on this land; great miracles and changes have been made decade after decade and century after century to the admiration of the world. This is the history of modern Korea under the leadership of the Party, which spans 80 years.
First of all, availing myself of this meaningful opportunity, I express my warm gratitude to the delegates to the celebrations, who have come to this glorious place with proud fruits of their remarkable patriotic enthusiasm and strenuous labour struggle.
I extend sincere congratulations and encouragement to all the Party members, other people and service personnel of our army, who are sending best wishes to this meeting from all parts of the country.
My warm congratulations go to congratulatory groups of Koreans in Japan, the General Federation of Koreans in China and the International Social Federation of Koreans, and to the delegates of other overseas organizations visiting their homeland and, through you, to all the overseas compatriots.
Also present at today's meeting are the heads of party and government and figures of several countries and delegates from international democratic organizations who are on a visit to Pyongyang with feelings of support to our Party and warm friendship with the Korean people.
I welcome you, dear friends, who are celebrating our Party's holiday with us and deepening the feelings of friendship, and extend my heartfelt thanks to you.
The 80th anniversary of the WPK is a glorious milestone thanks to the immortal achievements it has made over the long years for the country and the people and for the times and history.
The founding of our Party did not simply mean the birth of a political party in a country; it was a political event that signalled the emergence on the stage of history a new-type revolutionary party that would verify the righteousness of socialism and demonstrate its unique superiority and might.
From the days of building democracy, which coincided with its founding and the start of its leadership over the overall state and social life, to this day, the WPK has remained faithful to its responsibility and role as an engine of the revolution and guiding force of state administration and, in the course of this, has performed truly remarkable historic exploits.
By successfully leading the social transformation processes of several stages under the uplifted banner of the Juche idea, it has built on this land a genuine people's country with absolute prestige and national strength, a powerful country that comprehensively embodies the socialist ideas and ideals; it also has rendered a significant contribution to implementing the international cause for independence and justice.
The past 80 years were really complicated and arduous, yet worthwhile and glorious.
Those years witnessed a hard-fought war for repulsing the armed invasion by the allied imperialist forces and defending the land and dignity of the country, processes for building a country and creating a life again from scratch, and social revolutions that were accompanied by an acute class struggle and elimination of factions in the Party.
Following the establishment of the socialist system in our country, we found ourselves standing at the forefront of the most acute confrontation between the progressive and the reactionary and between socialism and imperialism. Given the geopolitical position of the country, our Party had to adopt a more resolute approach towards performing its mission of defending socialism; it had to give a strong impetus to implementing the cause of building the country's self-reliant defence capabilities. As the vicious schemes for isolating and stifling the country economically persisted from one century into the next, it had to cope with these schemes proactively and aggressively while pushing forward with the gigantic projects for socialist construction.
Particularly, amidst the worldwide political upheaval in the 1990s, it had to defend our ideology and social system, and entering the new century, in order to cope with the growing nuclear war threats by the US imperialists, it had to lead the people to make a new leap forward in socialist construction while simultaneously carrying on economic construction and build-up of the nuclear forces.
Historically, there has been no such country in the world as ours, which had to carry out so many tasks, both challenging and gigantic, for national defence and construction, even as it was facing constant and tenacious pressure, interference and threats of aggression by outside forces.
In fact, maintaining the political power and defending the social system was a miracle itself, but our Party has taken on all those important tasks; it has cleared an untrodden path for their implementation, writing a history of epochal transformations.