Rachmawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of Indonesia's founding president and Sukarno Education Foundation defended honoring awarding the peace prize to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in September. The award to be given for his "peace, justice and humanity" has been awarded in the past to freedom icons such as Mahatma Gandhi and Aung San Suu Kyi bringing disbelief to critics. But Sukarnoputri disregards the questions on the young North Korean leader's suitability for the award.
"The allegations about human rights abuses are untrue. That's all just Western propaganda. Those Western governments like to put ugly labels on North Korea", said Sukarnoputri, according to The Jakarta Post.
This will be the second time that North Korea's ruling family will be receiving a top prize from Rachmawati's foundation. Kim II Sung, Kim Jong-un's grandfather received the same award from the foundation in 2001.
Kim has been known as ruthless in dealing with disloyalty even to the most senior officials; ordering in 2013 the execution of Jang Song Thaek, his own uncle and political mentor and making foreign detainees make public, officially-scripted pronouncements of their guilt to be granted their release, as The Asia One reported.
The North Korean government had been criticized worldwide for human rights abuses and crimes against humanity. "Kim Jong-un's power is built on the continued abuses inflicted on the North Korean people because he sits at the helm of a central government apparatus that uses public executions, extensive political prison camps, and brutal forced labor to maintain control," said Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, according to The Huffington Post.
But Indonesia has remained friendly with the North Korean government. Sukarno, Rachmawati's father, the Indonesian president from 1945 to 1967, and Kim II Sung, who died in 1994, have been known to have developed an early relationship.
Despite the fact that North Korea remains to be among the poorest in the world, Kim Jong-un also received an honorary doctorate in economics award in 2013 from Malaysia's privately run HELP University.
