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At the invitation of the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries of DPRK and the DPRK-China Friendship Association (DPRKCFA), the delegation of the China-Korea (DPRK) Friendship Association (CKFA)，the China-Korea Friendship Hongxing Farm delegation and the China-DPRK Friendship Panglin Bringing Light Tour medical team, totalling 19 people, led by Wu Donghe, president of the CKFA, paid a goodwill visit to the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea from September 24 to 29, 2008.

The year 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the CKFA and the DPRKCFA. The CPAFFC took this opportunity to visit the DPRK with the aim of carrying forward, consolidating and developing traditional friendship between China and the DPRK and giving full play to its role as a link and a bridge to meet the needs of the development of the two countries in the political, economic and cultural fields.

The Korean side attached great importance to the visit. Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme Peoples Assembly, met with the delegation. Mon Jea Chol, acting chairman of the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries of DPRK, and Choe Chang Sik, chairman of the Central Committee of the DPRKCFA and minister of public health, respectively met with and entertained the delegation. Jeon Chun Sik，vice chairman of the Central Committee of the DPRKCFA, accompanied the delegation throughout the visit. The Korean side held a grand banquet, a commemoration meeting and a film reception in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the DPRKCFA and the CKFA. The Chinese delegation and Korean side jointly held the China-DPRK Friendship Panglin Bringing Light Tour to give free cataract extraction operations to the local patients. During their stay in the DPRK, besides participating in the above-mentioned activities, the Chinese delegation also attended the receptions respectively held by the Chinese Embassy in the DPRK and the Korean side in celebration of the 59th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, paid an official call on Ri Hak Gwon，director of the DPRK Chamber of Commerce，visited the Korea- China Friendship Thaekam Cooperative Farm, the Pyong- yang-Tianjin Joint-Venture Bicycle Manufacturing Company and Kaesong.

The main Korean media including the Korean Central TV (KCTV), and the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) gave full coverage of the delegations visit, and attracted wide attention in the DPRK. Wherever the delegation went, they were accorded warm reception by the Korean people and an ebullient friendly atmosphere permeated.

Kim Yong Nam Meeting with the Delegation

On the afternoon of September 27, Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme Peoples Assembly, met with chief members of the delegation at the Mansudae Assembly Hall.

In his meeting with the delegation, Kim Yong Nam said, Korea-China friendship, which is the invaluable legacy handed down by the leaders of the older generation of the two countries, is being further consolidated and developed under the best care from the current leaders of the two countries. In his meeting with visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping last June, General Secretary Kim Jong Il stressed: “The friendly relations between the DPRK and China were, are and will not be changed in the past, present and future.” The Korean Workers Party, government and people will always remember General Secretary Kim Jong Ils teaching and continue to make efforts to develop relations between the two countries.

Kim Yong Nam said, the year 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the DPRKCFA and the CKFA. It is a common festival of the people of the two countries. He expressed his gratitude to the CKFA for its contributions in the past 50 years to the development of friendship between the two countries, extended his congratulations to Wu Donghe on assuming the presidency of the CKFA and expressed his appreciation of Wus efforts to promote practical cooperation between the two countries when he served as Chinese ambassador to the DPRK. Kim said, under the leadership of President Wu Donghe, the CKFA will play a greater role in promoting friendship between the people of the two countries.

Kim Yong Nam continued, the year 2009 marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the DPRK and China. Having been designated as the Year of DPRK-China Friendship, 2009 will be a year of great significance to the people of the two countries. The departments concerned of the two countries are now actively making preparations for the activities of the Year of Friendship. He hoped that the friendship organizations of the two countries would make concerted efforts and cooperate well in jointly holding rich and fruitful activities so as to show the world the long-standing unbreakable friendship between the DPRK and China.

CKFA President Wu Donghe said, the friendship between China and the DPRK which was moulded in the long years of history, passed through revolutions and wars and underwent tests of changeable world situation has acquired strategic, traditional and unbreakable nature. Under the complex and changeable international situation, the China-DPRK friendly and cooperative relations have always been developing in correct direction, which has not only safeguarded the fundamental interests of the two peoples, but also helped maintain peace and development of the region. To further consolidate and develop China-DPRK traditional friendship is the firm strategic principle of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government, and an important guidance for the CKFA to carry out its work. In future, the CKFA, will as always, work together with the DPRKCFA to further expand the fields of cooperation, create new ways and increase channels of cooperation and enrich its contents so as to push forward the friendly cooperative relations between the two countries.

Attending Celebration Activities

On the afternoon of September 25, the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries and the DPRKCFA held a commemoration meeting and a film reception in Pyongyang in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the DPRKCFA and the CKFA. More than 150 friendly personages of various circles of the two countries were present on the occasion. In their speeches at the commemoration meeting, Choe Chang Sik and Wu Donghe reviewed the history of friendly contacts between the two organizations and expressed their willingness to go forward hand in hand to open together a new chapter of friendship between the two countries. After the meeting a documentary film about General Secretary Hu Jintaos official visit to the DPRK in October 2005 was shown.

That evening, the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries and the DPRKCFA held a banquet in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the DPRKCFA and the CKFA. Over 50 Korean and Chinese personages attended it.

Holding Charity Activities

During the delegations stay in the DPRK, the China-DPRK Friendship Panglin Bringing Light Tour was held in Pyongyang. The medical team formed by ophthalmology specialists of the Beijing Tongren Hospital gave free cataract extraction operations to the local patients. This transnational charity activity sponsored by the CPAFFC is planned to be held in the DPRK, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia with Pyongyang being its first leg.

In his speech at the inauguration of the China-DPRK Friendship Panglin Bringing Light Tour, Yu Panglin， chairman of the Shenzhen Yu Panglin Social Welfare Fund, and fund provider of the tour, said that he hoped the tour would bring light to more Korean cataract patients and convey the Chinese peoples profound friendship toward the Korean people. In his speech, Wang Ningli, vice president of Tongren Hospital, said, this activity offers a good chance for the medical circles of the two countries to strengthen exchanges and cooperation. He hoped that the medical workers of the two countries would do practical work to bring benefits to the two peoples and inject new vitality to the friendship between the two countries.

The charity medical service lasted four days. The medical team gave careful eye examination to about 150 cataract patients among whom 50 who met the requirements for surgery weregiven successful operations. The specialists of the two sides also had exchanges in medical technique. The Chinese doctors superb medical skills, strict working style and exemplary medical ethics were highly praised by their Korean counterparts. The activity aroused a strong repercussion in the DPRK. Pak Jyeong Il，director general of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, said, through the operations in the past four days we saw the sincerity of the Chinese doctors and were deeply moved by the Chinese peoples true friendly sentiments. The Bringing Light Tour was an act of true friendship that got in direct contact with the masses of people and benefited them.

Visiting Korea-China Friendship Farm

The year 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of Premier Zhou Enlais visit to the Thaekam Farm and the naming of the Ko- rea-China Friendship Thaekam Cooperative Farm. On this occasion, the CPAFFC invited a delegation of the Thaekam Farm to visit China in February 2008. This time, Zhang Fuping, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Beijing Sanyuan Group Co., Ltd. (higher administrative authorities of the China-DPRK Friendship Hongxing Farm), and other executives of the farm visited the DPRK in company with the delegation, and had talks with their Korean counterparts on future cooperation between the two sides. The visit has promoted bilateral friendly cooperation. Zhang Fuping, on behalf of the China-Korea Friendship Hong- xing Farm, donated 5,000 US dollars to help the Thaekam Farm to update its agriculturalequipment.

Call on the Economic and Trade Department

When meeting with the leading members of the DPRK Chamber of Commerce， CKFA President Wu Donghe said, since entering the new century, the fields of cooperation between China and the DPRK have been expanding; particularly, bilateral economic and trade cooperation is becoming increasingly active. Many of the council members of the CKFA are entrepreneurs with economic strength who are carrying out or planning to carry out cooperation with the Korean side in energy development, agriculture and manufacture. Wu hoped that the Korean side would give them care and assistance. The Korean side expressed welcome to them.