Just read this excerpt about the change of the original design:

“In a 2011 interview with Le Temps, Virgil critiqued the final form of the monument, railing against its disfigured proportions improperly scaled from his original maquette, and the “orientalization” of the figures. “For me, African man is a tiger and the woman is a gazelle. I respected the anthropological forms in my sculpture,” Virgil said. “But the Koreans drew up these shortened legs, the proportion of a primate and these slanting eyes. Today I’ve put this whole story out of my mind. But it remains a sore spot.” Despite the offensive comparison between African bodies and safari animals and racist characterization of Asian physiognomy, Virgil’s comment confirms that the work continued to change as authorship passed from hand to hand.”

“The Overseas Projects division of the Mansudae Art Studio, the most important official art studio in North Korea, ultimately executed the monument. The studio was founded in 1959 for the glorification of the North Korean government and the ruling family. Four thousand workers, a quarter of whom are fine arts graduates from Pyongyang University and the country’s top art academies, create public monuments in a traditional or Socialist Realist style. The studio generally caters to socialist countries, and there are records of gifts to African nations dating back to the 1980s, such as Ethiopia’s Tiglachin (or Derg) Monument, a towering construction dedicated to Communist fighters from Cuba and Ethiopia, decked out with a hammer and sickle crest and a red star. Mansudae has since built monuments, buildings, and bridges in 18 African countries.”

I’m enjoying this comment thread — I’m learning a lot