Pyongyang, August 18: Amid the novel coronavirus crisis, North Koreans are reportedly being forced to give up their pet dogs so that restaurants can use dog meats to solve the nation's food shortages. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has ordered that pet dogs can be confiscated in Pyongyang, claiming that they represent Western "decadence". Spicy Dog Meat Soup: North Koreans Eat Dog Meat to Beat the Heat in Summer.

Kim Jong Un in July announced that owning a pet is against the law, saying that pooches were a part of “a tainted trend by bourgeois ideology," a source told South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper. Kim Jong Un Death Hoax: Is North Korea's Supreme Leader Dead? Photoshopped Image of Kim Jong Il's Funeral Goes Viral

"Authorities have identified households with pet dogs and are forcing them to give them up or forcefully confiscating them and putting them down," the daily said.

In North Korea, pet canines are thought to be owned mostly by wealthy people in the capital Pyongyang, while ordinary people own pigs and other livestock.

Some of the dogs are sent to zoos or sold to dog meat restaurants, the source added. Dog meat is popular in China and on the Korean Peninsula. However, the consumption is on a decline in South Korea.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 18, 2020 04:33 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).