Two notorious dictators set to become involved with exotic animals: Conservationists protest as Robert Mugabe sends 'ark' of animals to North Korea | World news | The Guardian
It wouldn't be the first time that national leaders who can't exactly be called the world's greatest ones exchange animals between themselves. Pyongyang Zoo had or maybe still has Giant Pandas, and probably other endangered Chinese wildlife as well.
When people list the causes of environmental problems, they usually list habitat destruction, poaching, pollution, etc. Of course these are all true, but another really big contributor that is often not on the list (and should be) is political corruption.
You can hardly call this transfer of southern African wildlife to North Korea political corruption. That said, I am not to be counted as one of the admirers' of RM our is ZANU-PF ilk. Nor am I particularly fond of their political methods. But I am not dismissive of the underlying political philosophy either. It is just the old adage that these political leaders put their own agendas before their supposedly progressive political ambitions - hence corruption and abuse of power sets in (damn I can find a few very western political leaders having than that in the not too distant past too). RM's human rights abuses go back to just after (justly) wrestling independence from the John Smith post-colonial govt. His reign has been disastrous both for the Zimbabwean people he claims to represent and the natural resources and wildlife of Zimbabwe. That is the real corruption which perhaps you were getting at. If not consider this an short essay excerpt of the issue as it should be defined. However and admittedly, this forum is not to blabber on about politics. There are other forums for that (no offence).
Animals have always been moved from Africa so what is the big deal? How did all the African animals in Zoo's around the world get there? Lets stop gaining political mileage by blaming Mugabe for everything!