North Koreans risk the wrath of the regime if they keep dogs as pets, Pyongyang has decreed, warning that canines should only be kept for meat and fur.
The bizarre ban was announced through the Socialist Women’s Union of Korea, according to a source in South Pyongan province, north of the capital.
Speaking to Daily NK, a newspaper in neighboring South Korea, the source listed violations that could put dog owners at odds with the government’s socialist ethos.
“Treating a dog as a family member, who eats and sleeps with the family, is incompatible with the socialist lifestyle and should be strictly avoided,” they said.
Dressing dogs in clothes, as exemplified by Western celebrities such as Paris Hilton, was also condemned.
Kim Jong Un’s people risk wrath from strict regime if they keep dogs as pets after being warned that dogs should only be bred for meat and fur
The source continued: “The practice of dressing up dogs as if they were people, putting pretty ribbons in their hair, wrapping them in a blanket and burying them when they die is a civil activity.
“It’s one of the ways rich people waste money in a capitalist society.”
The source describes the regime’s attitude as follows: ‘Dogs are basically meat raised outside in accordance with their nature and then eaten when they die.
“Such behavior is therefore completely unsocialist and must be strictly eliminated.”
The regime also emphasized that “the purpose of breeding dogs is to collect more fur,” the source said.
Increasing dog ownership – a practice described by authorities as ‘the stench of the bourgeoisie’ – was reportedly the reason for the new edict.
And while citizens were given the opportunity to handle the matter “calmly,” non-compliance could spark a “mass movement” to “eliminate” the practice, the source said.
The practice of keeping dogs must eventually die out, union members have been warned.
The practice of keeping dogs as pets started small in North Korea in the early 2000s, when they were mostly guard dogs
One dog owner described by Daily NK was moved to tears by the announcement.
‘What should I do with the dog I love so much? I can’t just kill it, and I can’t just leave it behind,” she reportedly said.
Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), which documents the Kim regime’s atrocities, said it was a “ridiculous” decree.
He said: “The Kim regime criminalizes normal behavior, including visiting a relative in a neighboring village without a travel permit, crossing the border without regime permission, or possessing a religious book.
“The continued crackdown on dog ownership as non-socialist behavior – this attempt to sever the multi-millennial bond between humans and dogs through an ideological decree – is the epitome of a ridiculous ban.”
According to the source in South Pyongan, the practice of keeping dogs as pets started small in North Korea in the early 2000s, when they were mostly guard dogs.
They said: ‘There have always been families who had cats to catch mice, but there weren’t many families with dogs.
“But that number has gradually increased, and recently there has been a noticeable increase in foreign dog breeds such as Pomeranians and Shih Tzus, which used to be a rare occurrence in North Korea.”
Although dog meat is eaten in both Koreas, it has become controversial in the South and the Seoul government passed a law in January banning its production and sale.
A dog meat soup known as Dangogiguk is sometimes served to foreign visitors in the north.