KING Father Norodom Sihanouk sent North Korea’s Kim Jong Il a basket of flowers on Wednesday to congratulate the communist state’s supreme leader on the occasion of his 68th birthday, North Korean state media reported.

According to the report from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), “a delegation of the Ministry of the Royal Palace of the Cambodian government led by Kong Sam Ol, deputy prime minister in charge of the Royal Palace, visited the DPRK Embassy on February 11 to lay the floral basket before the portraits of President Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il there”.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said the gesture on the part of the King Father was not out of keeping with Cambodia’s diplomatic protocol.

“We have a relationship between North Korea and Cambodia. It’s normal, just as we have with other countries,” he said. “The relations between the two countries are normal right now.”