THE Siberian tiger, on the verge of being wiped out to fill an insatiable demand in traditional Chinese medicine, might have found an unusual protector in North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Almost extinct in the vast Russian Far East forests of Taiga, the large carnivore has found refuge in the Stalinist state's most sacred site, Mount Paektu, claimed to be Kim's birthplace.
The mountain is one of the Korean peninsula's eight major scenic spots and was a secret military base during the war against Japan in the 1930s and 1940s, when the leader was reportedly born there.
Western experts dispute Mount Paektu's significance and say his birthplace was Khabarovsk, Russia, but the 2,750-metre mountain has been preserved as a nature reserve.
A North Korean official in Pyongyang, 385 kilometres south, said wild tigers still roam the forested slopes of Mount Paektu. 'The carnivore still survives in other nature reserves in the isolated country, including many close to the Chinese border,' she said.
North Korea claims 80 per cent of the country is covered by mountains and that it has 'abundant wildlife'.