Kim Jong-Un orders North Koreans to give up pet dogs to save country from food shortage
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has, reportedly, ordered citizens to give up their pet dogs, so that the canines can be killed for their meat. The country is currently fighting an acute food shortage while trying to manage the coronavirus pandemic.
To quell discontent among his people, the Supreme Leader has ordered people to hand over their pet dogs. He used class difference as an excuse to justify the move, which has been described as brutal and inhuman.
According to a report by The Mirror, he said that the ordinary people raise livestock and cattle while only the rich and elite have pet dogs. He called having pet dogs a sign of "capitalism" and "bourgeois ideology."
Dogs in North Korea have always been associated with capitalist notions and the rule banning pet dogs has been implemented on and off since the 1980s.
According to the South China Morning Post, in 2018, North Korea asked its people to give up their dogs' fur ahead of the Party Foundation Day (one of North Korea's biggest and most important holidays). If they refused, they would have to hand over the US $148 worth of rice to the state.
Kim Jong-un, whose focus has been to improve the country’s defence, has spent a lot of resources to develop and test nuclear weapons. Now, owing to a fall in trade with China, its economic condition has worsened. According to the UN, several families are able to afford only one meal a day. Approximately 60 per cent of the 25.5 million population in North Korea is suffering from starvation.
According to multiple reports, North Korea has also been facing a shortage of food. The New York Times reported once confiscation of pooches begins in Pyongyang, some of them will be sent to zoos and some to restaurants for meat.
Authorities have been tasked to identify families in North Korea with pet dogs, and it is highly likely that the family will not be able to do much once authorities are at their doorstep to take away their pets.
