As of July, owning a pet in North Korea has been illegal. The animals are therefore sent to state zoos or sold to restaurants that cook dog meat.
For the North Korean dictator, pet dogs represent the symbol of a “corrupt tendency of bourgeois ideology,” Dailymail reported.
According to the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, quoted by the British media, the Korean authorities have therefore identified “households with dogs and then force them to abandon them or the animals are forcibly confiscated to be slaughtered”.
This decision worries the owners of the pets. They fear that the latter will be used by the state to solve the problem of food shortages in North Korea.
According to a recent UN report, up to 60% of North Korea’s population faces widespread food shortages.
Indeed, the Asian state is being severely tested by the international sanctions imposed against the Kim Jong-Un regime and its nuclear missile programs.
Recently, Cambodia and the Chinese city of Shenzen have legislated against the consumption of dog meat. Pyongyang does not seem to be taking the same path. The North Korean capital is always full of restaurants where meat is the specialty.
