Flowers for Kim Il-Sung Statue

Source : Free North Korea Radio

From Free North Korea Radio (www.fnkradio.com)...
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When there are major events going on in North Korea, such as birthday of Kim Jong-Il or Kim Il-Sung, every statue of Kim Il-Sung in every North Korean city gets surrounded by bouquets of flowers. These bouquets do not come from local citizens voluntarily; instead, local factory organizations split the cost, and the local government office buys the flowers and puts them around the statue.

But when there are no events going on, there are usually only one or two bouquets around the statue. This is because local citizens put them there to make the statue not look so desolate, but it doesn't seem to help much.

The Kim Il-Sung statues in Pyongyang and Shin-ui-joo are always full of bouquets because foreign tourists like Chinese tourists are forced to buy and leave a flower bouquet at the statue. This is known to be a moneymaking scheme by the government.

A Chinese tourist that recently visited North Korea posted on his blog(http://blog.sina.com.cn/jianadalaohe) that the flowers that are offered at these statues get 'recycled' and sold again.

According to his blog, "I bought a 20 yuan bouquet to offer at the Kim Il-Sung statue. Before I even bought the bouquet, the flowers were already dead. After we offered the flowers and toured around the museum, the flowers around the statue were all gone."

The government forces their own citizens and tourists to buy and offer flowers to the statue every time, but where do they come up with the money? Just sell them again after use.