Wen visits Chinese martyr's cemetery in DPRK

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-05 13:49

PYONGYANG - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday visited a cemetery for martyears of the Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV), in Hoechang County of South Phyongan province, during his visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The cemetery, located some 100 km east of Pyongyang, is the largest in the DPRK among dozens for the Chinese People's Volunteer Army soldiers who died in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea more than 50 years ago.

Accompanied by senior DPRK officials, Premier Wen laid a wreath before the bronze statue of a CPV soldier and visited the tombs of CPV martyears. He said the people of the motherland have never forgotten the CPV martyears and will always cherish their memory.

The construction of the 90,000-square meter cemetery, where 134 martyears of the Chinese People's Volunteers are buried, including Mao Anying, son of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong, was completed in 1957. The next year, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai visited the cemetery during his visit to the DPRK.

Some 2.4 million soldiers of the Chinese People's Volunteers were sent to the DPRK in the early 1950s to join the Korean People's Army in fighting the U.S. aggressors.

In Hoechang County, Wen also visited the site of the headquarters of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army.