Watch: Dom Mintoff Shares A Drink With North Korea’s Kim Il-sung In 1975
Vintage footage from the 1970s shows former Maltese Prime Minister Dom Mintoff meeting with the leader of the Hermit Kingdom.
It’s no secret that Mintoff had close ties to North Korea, with the infamous singing scene showing a number of women singing in Maltese as Mintoff smiles in the audience already an icon of Maltese videos.
But footage of Mintoff and North Korea founder Kim Il-sung chatting together before sharing a cheers and clinking their glasses together shows just how chummy the two were.
It wasn’t only Il-sung that Mintoff was close to – Il-sung’s son, Kim Jong Il, studied English in Malta, with Mintoff believed to have even had a villa made for him between Baħrija and Fomm ir-Riħ.
@newsreelsfromthepast #malta #northkorea #northkoreans #maltese #mintoff #communism #socialism #kimiisung #ties #history #70s #people #asian #fypシ゚ #fyp ♬ เสียงต้นฉบับ – C – Pe.C
During the Cold War, Malta became close to some of the USSR’s allies, including China, Libya and North Korea.
And Malta’s touch upon the Korean peninsula can be seen till today, if you look closely.
In 1982, directly opposite Kim Il-sung Square, the Tower of the Juche Idea – one of the main landmarks in Pyongyang – was built.
This 170-metre monument is made up of 25,550 blocks (365 × 70, one for each day of Kim Il-sung’s life, excluding leap years’ days), is capped with a 20-metre illuminated metal torch.
A closer look at the plaques on the tower shows two from Malta – one from the Malta National Committee to Study the Juche Idea, and from the Malta Labour Party.
Before you head off to Pyongyang to check for yourself, check out this musical ode to Mintoff.
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