PYONGYANG, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Veterans of the Korean War gathered here Tuesday night for the Seventh National Conference of War Veterans on the occasion of the 68th anniversary of the end of the war, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday.

In his speech at the conference, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un praised the defenders and builders of the country in the 1950s "who created the heroic fighting spirit and traits as benefactors and genuine teachers we should admire and learn after with feelings of gratitude forever," the report said.

He said it was the honorable mission of the descendants of the war veterans to further consolidate and bring prosperity to the country, the report added.

He also expressed his conviction that "the great spirit and will instilled by the V-Day would be an eternal impetus promoting the advance and development of socialist construction."

The conference was held in front of the Monument to the Fatherland Liberation War in Pyongyang.

The Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950 and ended with an armistice on July 27, 1953.