- North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un clings to pet dogs in Pyongyang, according to local reports.
- South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo quoted an anonymous source as saying that Kim criticized pet ownership as “a ‘contaminated’ trend by bourgeois ideology.”
- The source described “resentment” among the lower classes as they increase barges and livestock, while officials and wealthier populations have dogs of the country.
- The animals are put down, sent to zoos or sold to restaurants where dog meat is eaten, the source said, according to Chosun Ilbo.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has cracked down on pet owners in the capital Pyongyang, according to local reports.
Deciding it as a Western ‘decadence’ and ‘a’ contaminated ‘trend by bourgeois ideology,’ Kim ordered in July that dogs be confiscated, an unnamed source told South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo.
“Ordinary people raise barges and livestock on their porches, but senior officials and the wealthy own pet dogs, which provoked some resentment,” the source said.
Per Chosun Ilbo added the source that “authorities have identified households with pet dogs and forced them to give them up or forcibly confiscate and put them down.”
The dogs are also sent to zoos or sold to restaurants where dog meat is eaten, source Chosun Ilbo said, noting that pet owners “cursed Kim Jong Un behind his back.”
This movement comes as the famous mysterious land plays out from a food shortage and floods.
Meanwhile, the leaders adhere to the national narrative that they are not affected by the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected nearly 22 million people and killed at least 775,000 people worldwide. It claimed to have one case in July – a North Korean defector who fled to South Korea and then swam back after being the subject of a sexual assault investigation. However, experts doubt that the Hermit Kingdom has remained unhealthy due to the disease, particularly amid South Korean media reports that nearly 200 soldiers died from the coronavirus while several thousand more were quarantined to limit the spread of the infection.
