Inside,
children shriek with delight as they throw chips and crackers into the cages.
Signs indicate not only breed but through which Kim the animal was gifted - whether
directly or indirectly, via some other dubious luminary of Second and Third
World politics. An elephant from Ho Chi Minh, presented to Great Leader Kim Il
Sung in Juche 48 (1959). A Cuban crocodile presented to the Dear Leader Kim
Jong 11 by the Cuban Embassy in Juche 69 (1980). A lion from Robert Mugabe.
?
There
is a separate house for dogs and cats. Household pets are uncommon in
Pyongyang, so according to local logic, such creatures should naturally be
showcased in the zoo. A trio of gray mutts stand at abrupt attention at the end
of a steel cage, separating us by a waist-size concrete partition. "Go
ahead, the one in the middle hasn't had one yet," a young mother instructs
her toddler, who gleefully tosses in a cracker and then watches the dogs fight
over the morsel before popping one into her own mouth. When another cracker
lands on the concrete partition, just on the other side of the fence, Hwa
approaches and nudges it with the end of his umbrella till it lands within dog
reach.
?
There's
a long, unmoving line waiting to get inside the penguin house. Apparently, as
foreigners, we're allowed to jump it, as we're immediately ushered in. Inside,
we join a group of college-aged elites for whom a private viewing has been
arranged. They stand around casually chatting and snapping photos and videos of
the penguins, who swim back and forth in the aquarium against a painted desert
island backdrop.
?
Another
popular attraction is the talking parrots. Min elbows her way through the crowd
of children to record the creatures, which have been trained to croak out
"Hi!" when you toss them a cracker. Elsewhere, a mobile photo studio
offers laminated photos of your tots seated on a live pony. Sample photos show
entire families weighing down the poor beast's back.
?
Travis Jeppesen "See You
Again in Pyongyang: A Journey into Kim Jong Un's North Korea" (2018)
?
