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