Kim Jong-un punishes gardeners as flowers don’t bloom on time for event: Report

Kim Jong-un is said to have sent a group of gardeners to labour camps. According to reports, the North Korean leader ordered the gardeners to labour camps when the flowers didn’t blossom in time to mark his late father Kim Jong-il’ birth anniversary.

The flowers were going to be a centrepiece on the Day of the Shining Star, February 16. ‘Kimjongilias’, also known as the ‘immortal flower’ are the flowers in question.

The flowers were created by Japanese botanist Mototeru Kamo to commemorate Kim Jong-un’s birthday, and they have since become a prominent feature of the Day of the Shining Star commemorations that remembers the former leader.

Han, the man in charge of the greenhouse where the flowers were growing, was apparently asked to make sure the flowers were ready in time for the Day of the Shining Star and the Day of the Sun, which marks North Korean founder Kim Il-sung’s birthday.

Due to a lack of firewood, the greenhouse was not kept humid enough for the flowers to flourish, resulting in their failing to blossom on time, and the gardener being sentenced to six months in a labour camp.

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A source stated about the alleged incident: ‘Economic activity greatly decreased due to the strengthening of the country’s emergency disease-control measures, which led many Kimilsungia-Kimjongilia greenhouses to become neglected. But now they’re suddenly saying that the Kimjongilia flowers have to be grown in time for the event, so how is Han supposed to grow them?’

Han isn’t the only employee that has received penalties, according to the source, who also stated that other colleagues have also been reprimanded.

Choi, who was in charge of the facility’s boilers, was supposedly sentenced to three months in the labour camps for not properly adjusting the temperature. The flowers were reported to be monitored, and ‘a flower grower surnamed Kim was called in every day to the county party committee to report on the state of the flowers and to write self-criticism reports’.

The flowers had previously been imported from China due to growing challenges, so this isn’t the first time they have caused problems.