Pyongyang, April 9 (KCNA) -- The 60th National Schoolchildren's Art Festival opened with due ceremony at the Mangyongdae Schoolchildren's Palace on April 8 on the occasion of the greatest auspicious April holiday of the nation.

The festival will be held, divided into folk songs contest of art group members of the schoolchildren's palaces, individual art contest of schoolchildren and general art performance of schoolchildren from all provinces.

Present at the opening ceremony were officials concerned and schoolchildren.

Mun Chol, chairman of the Central Committee of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League, made a report.

The reporter said that the respected fatherly Marshal Kim Jong Un, who always prioritizes the work for the younger generation and gives boundless love and affection to them, changed the appearance of the schoolchildren's palaces and children's camps and visited the newly-built schools and extracurricular educational bases one after another and showed warm benevolence for the children to make sure that their textbook reading and singing resound far and wide on this land.

He called upon all schoolchildren to further improve their artistic skills while learning good experience during the festival, and declared the 60th National Schoolchildren's Art Festival opened.

Then speeches were made there. -0-