North Korean state media has heaped praise upon an 18-year-old “virgin girl soldier” who died from overwork while fulfilling Kim Jong Un’s orders to carry out rapid construction on a greenhouse last year. 

Korean Central Television (KCTV) presented Cha Ji Yon’s reported decision to keep working despite having just undergone “emergency surgery,” which led to her death, as an example of how all conscripted soldiers should live when mobilized to work on major time-sensitive projects.  

Cha died on July 9 last year at the Ryonpho Greenhouse Farm, according to a special KCTV program that aired on Thursday about Kim’s strict