North Korea Confiscates Dogs

The North Korean regime has launched a crackdown on dog ownership. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un issued a ban on pet ownership in July, denouncing it as “a ‘tainted’ trend by bourgeois ideology.”

From Chosun Ilbo, a Korean news outlet:

“Authorities have identified households with pet dogs and are forcing them to give them up or forcefully confiscating them and putting them down.”

Some of the dogs are sent to state-run zoos or sold to dog meat restaurants, the source added.

Pet owners are “cursing Kim Jong-un behind his back,” but there is little they can do, according to the source.

Most dog owners in the impoverished country are well to do, and this stoked resentment among the rest of the people, or so the official line goes.

“Ordinary people raise pigs and livestock on their porches, but high-ranking officials and the wealthy own pet dogs, which stoked some resentment,” Chosun Ilbo’s source added.

The move comes as the Hermit Kingdom faces food shortages and is struggling to keep the masses fed.



This editor is an adventurous eater, but dog is not something I’ve ever eaten, however, it remains a popular dish on the Korean peninsula.