The government was this evening urged to withdraw the Gieh ir-Repubblika honour conferred  to late North Korean leader Kim il Sung in 1975.

PN deputy leader for party affairs Beppe Fenech Adami said in parliament that in the same way as former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and former Tunisian President Ben Ali had been stripped of Malta's highest honour, the same should be done in the case of the North Korean leader.

This man, he said, was responsible for the death of millions of people in wars, political jails and famine, and his very name personified tyranny.

The comments were made during a debate on amendments to the Gieh ir-Repubblika Act.

The PN deputy leader for party affairs, Mario de Marco, reiterated Opposition  disagreement with removing the capping provided for in the law. Such an amendment, he said, should have been discussed with the Opposition before being taken to Parliament.

He insisted that national honours should be reserved to those who truly deserved them, not those whose only merit was to be close to the party in government.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.