The tree serves as a reminder of President Kim Il Sung's deep concern for afforestation of the country.

During the hard-fought Fatherland Liberation War, a commander of the Chinese People's Volunteers presented the President with a sapling of dawn redwood found in China. At that time the tree was known as an extinct species in the world.

The President, with a far-reaching plan to turn the war-torn country into a thick woodland after the war, potted it.

After winning the war, he replanted the sampling in the garden of his residence to adapt it to the climatic and soil conditions of Korea.

Learning that the tree grows rapidly in good shape, he summoned a botanist and told him to propagate it. So the tree was replanted again in the Central Botanical Garden and propagated throughout the country.