Love of the great leaders and the respected Marshal Kim Jong Un for the people is associated in the Central Zoo, a place of cultural recreation frequented by the Korean people and a base for disseminating the knowledge on animals.
Great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il said:
“In our country, under the wise leadership of the Party and the leader, the working people are provided with all conditions to enjoy their leisure time in whatever form they want.”
President Kim Il Sung personally initiated and led the building of the zoo to enable the Korean people to lead affluent cultural and emotional life to their hearts’ content.
Regarding it as the most important issue to provide the people with the place of cultural recreation after the national liberation, the President instructed to built the zoo in Pyongyang in October 1949 and made sure that the building of the zoo was reflected in the general plan of the rehabilitation of Pyongyang City, keeping the building of the zoo in his mind even in the days of the Fatherland Liberation War.
One day in April, 1959, the President who visited the construction site of the zoo gave precious instructions for the building of the zoo, the collection and breeding of animals, stressing to the officials concern to think boldly and build the zoo on a large scale as he would settle all problems on a nationwide scale.
The Central Zoo (Pyongyang Zoo at that time) was inaugurated on April 30, 1959 thanks to the energetic leadership of the President.
Even after the building of the zoo, the President not only directed deep attention to the zoo and sent many animals but also made sure that the collection of animals was conducted through a nationwide movement and took state measures for the enough obtainment of world famous animals.
And he sent to the Central Zoo the animals presented by the heads of state, figures and overseas compatriots in different countries along with the animals he had personally bred.
The Central Zoo could be well arranged as a pleasant place for cultural recreation and an educational place giving knowledge on animals thanks to the President’s warm affection for the people.
The President’s love for the people was invariably inherited by Chairman Kim Jong Il.
Kim Jong Il who continued endless road of devotion for fulfilling the President’s desire visited the zoo for several times in 1984 alone to give instructions for better arrangement of the zoo and solve the problems arising in the management of the zoo.
Looking round the zoo, he gave precious instruction to arrange the zoo not as the place for simple sightseeing but as an educational base that widens the knowledge on the animals and fosters the spirit of socialist patriotism, adding that it was a precious wealth to be handed down to the posterity.
When he visited the zoo in April 1986, Kim Jong Il stressed to buy the animals that were not available in Korea to enable the people to enjoy and instructed the concrete ways for this, adding that there was nothing to spare for the sake of the people. When the officials hesitated to buy rare animals as they were too expensive, he took measures to buy the animals, saying that the calculation of balance should not be given priority for the sake of the people.
In 2011, the last year of his life, Kim Jong Il visited the zoo twice to present programmatic tasks arising in managing and operating the zoo in keeping with the requirement of the developing era.
Thanks to the wise leadership of Kim Jong Il, the Central Zoo could be refurbished as an excellent educational place imbuing ardent patriotism in the hearts of the people and as the modern base for cultural and emotional life in the era of Songun.
True to the great leaders’ noble desire of loving the people, Marshal Kim Jong Un took benevolent measure to more finely reconstruct the zoo which is a precious legacy of the great leaders into the base of the people’s cultural and emotional life.
Giving field guidance to the zoo in May 2012, Kim Jong Un personally initiated to refurbish the zoo which is associated with the immortal feats of the great leaders, suiting to the appearance of a socialist civilized nation and clarified the orientation and ways for its reconstruction.
On that day, he instructed to bring the animals in other countries including giraffes and zebras and the world rare animals to the zoo, stressing that the kinds of animals should be increased as the Central Zoo has weighty significance in cultural and emotional life and the education of the people.
Visiting again the central zoo which was under reconstruction in March 2014, he instructed to build the new structures including a penguin aviary in conformity with the animals’ ecological features and build them to accommodate the visitors’ convenience to the maximum.
Kim Jong Un directed deep attention to the small and big issues arising in the reconstruction including the building of a new main building symbolizing the zoo in the entrance to the zoo, the arrangement of a peculiar rest place linking the exterior and interior, the set-up of new direction signs suiting to the characteristics of the zoo and so on.
He stressed to take the measures for providing the animal food and water and establish thorough anti-epidemic system while reconstructing the zoo.
And he emphasized to build the front gate retaining the characteristics of the zoo, arrange a sturgeon pond and undertake forestation well to fundamentally improve the circumstances.
Kim Jong Un instructed to build a comprehensive natural museum capable of giving rich knowledge and common sense on the animals and plants to the youth, students and the working people.
Indeed, the trace of devotion left in the Central Zoo by the respected Marshal Kim Jong Un is associated with his noble intention to enable the Korean people to lead happier life in a socialist civilized nation.
The Korean people will feel the peerlessly great persons’ boundless love for the people while laughing hearty laug
