Jakarta – Rachmawati Soekarnoputri, the daughter of first president Sukarno, has said she would like to give an award to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for his contribution to the fight against neocolonialism.
Rachmawati revealed the plan during a meeting with North Korean Ambassador to Indonesia Ri Jong-ryul on Thursday at her private residence in Central Jakarta.
"Kim Jong-un has similar thoughts to Sukarno. They have similar visions and missions," Rachmawati said as quoted by kompas.com. The world, she said, had treated him unfairly, pigeonholing him as merely a brutal dictator.
"It's Western propaganda. [...] It's the same old story told with certain ulterior motives," she said, adding that her father had also been deemed a dictator by many in the Western world.
In 2002, her Soekarno Education Foundation awarded Kim's grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the same award for his "peacemaking" efforts. Rachmawati, who is also a Gerindra politician, said that her foundation was working out details on how to deliver the award to Kim.