This year marks the 59 th anniversary of the official goodwill visit by the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung and Comrade Kim Jong Il to the Republic of Indonesia.

From April 10 to 20 in 1965, President Kim Il Sung paid an official goodwill visit to Indonesia together with Chairman Kim Jong Il at the kind invitation of Soekarno, the first President of Indonesia, and participated in the commemorative event held on the 10 th anniversary of the Bandung Conference

At that time, President Soekarno saw to it that fighter planes of the air force were flown in formation to escort the special plane taking President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il who were on a visit to Indonesia, and rolled out the red carpet treatment. This includes the organization of a welcoming ceremony along the route from the airport to the presidential palace lined with hundreds of thousands people and personally awarding President Kim Il Sung with the first class of the “Order of the Republic of Indonesia”.

At the talks held between President Kim Il Sung and President Soekarno, they discussed and reached a consensus on the issues of strengthening mutual support and cooperation in the struggle to build a just new society upholding the banner of anti-imperialism and independence and consolidating the solidarity and cooperation between the newly-emerging countries for accomplishing the cause of global independence.

While visiting the Bogor Botanical Garden, President Soekarno expressed his earnest desire to name a beautiful orchid, cultivated by one botanist of his county, as Kimilsungia after the august name of President Kim Il Sung . Born as the flower of praise for the great man reflecting the boundless respect and great admiration of President Soekarno and the people of Indonesia, the flower is still engraved in the hearts of the peoples of the two countries as an eternal symbol of the friendly DPRK-Indonesian relations.

Indeed, the official goodwill visit by President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il to Indonesia was a historic visit that has provided another milestone in developing the DPRK-Indonesian relations.

The friendly relations between the two countries forged by President Kim Il Sung and President Soekarno is now continuing to develop after gaining momentum when Chairman Kim Jong Il met Megawati Soekarno Putri, the former President of Indonesia who visited our country in March 2002.

The long-standing friendly relations between the DPRK and Indonesia is a valuable legacy to be held by the governments and peoples of the two countries. It is a consistent stand of the DPRK government to invariably develop the bilateral friendly relations to the mutual benefits of the peoples of the two countries.

The friendly relations between the DPRK and Indonesia will be further consolidated and developed together with every spring and Kimilsungia, the eternal symbol of the bilateral friendly relations.

Korea-Asia Association