Megawati visit North Korean flower exhibition

Megawati visit North Korean flower exhibition

Former Indonesian president Megawati Soekarnoputri (left) and Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno (second left), the Japanese widow of Indonesia's founding president Sukarno, visited a flower exhibition in the North Korean capital on Wednesday as part of celebrations leading to the birth anniversary of the socialist nation's founding ruler Kim Il-sung.

Megawati's visit comes amid the ongoing nuclear standoff with North Korea, and it wasn't known if the former Indonesian leader planned to meet leader Kim Jong-il. Their fathers, the late Kim and Indonesian strongman Sukarno, were friends.

The "Kimilsungia" orchids displayed ahead of the Friday holiday marking the 93rd anniversary of his birth were given by Sukarno to the elder Kim when he visited Indonesia in 1965. North Korea also has a "Kimjongilia" flower for its current ruler.

Some 5,000 Pyongyang citizens were mobilized to visit the opening of the flower show where some 10,000 orchids were on display, Associated Press Television News reported.

"He was a very smart person. Very honest. And of course I know he is brave and always loved his country and his people," Megawati said of the late Kim, according to APTN.

Kim Il-sung died in 1994, but he still is enshrined in the country's constitution as the "eternal president" and his birth and death anniversaries are major holidays.

Megawati was to visit South Korea after her trip to the North. -- AP