Pretoria: South Africa`s Deputy Minister of Police has compared former president Nelson Mandela to deceased North Korean leader Kim Il Sung. Maggie Sotyu made the comparison at the centenary celebrations of North Korea, held at the North Korean embassy in Pretoria. “You and your fellow countrymen rightly so regard (Kim Il Sung) as the father of the nation, and you will thus forever revere him as your president,” News24 quoted Sotyu, as saying. “We also have our own father of the nation, the first democratically-elected president of a democratic Republic of South Africa, Mr Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela,” Sotyu said.
“I am pleased to say proudly that these similarities I have just mentioned of these two great nations extend beyond symbolic boundaries or gestures. They are deeply embedded in our existence and our history as respective nations,” she added. Sotyu said South Africans would be forever indebted to North Korea because it was under the leadership of Kim Il Sung when Pyongyang ‘provided us with all possible material and mental support during our struggle for freedom, to overturn and overcome the tyranny of the apartheid regime.’
According to the report, she also stressed that both countries had a meaningful relationship despite the fact that South Africa has no dedicated ambassador in the North Korean capital Pyongyang.
ANI