Taking their cue from their Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, who visited a pet shop in April this year, North Koreans, particularly the affluent ones, are now openly acquiring pets and shopping for pet food and accessories, an undertaking that used to be condemned as "decadent capitalist culture" that screams luxury.
North Korea is under a totalitarian dictatorship with its own state ideology called Juche (self-reliance). During the COVID-19 pandemic, dogs and other pets were confiscated and sent to meat shops to become food for starving North Koreans. Kim also banned all pets, calling it a "tainted trend by bourgeois ideology."
This tense matter has relaxed in recent months after the North Korean leader stopped by the Hwasong Pet Shop in the newly opened fourth-phase zone of the Hwasong district in Pyongyang. There, he was photographed holding a puppy with his family members around.
Daily NK, a Seoul-based, defector-run news organization, reported that state-linked trading companies are now importing a large number of pet dogs from China, along with pet food and other pet care items. The imported foreign breeds of dogs such as Maltese, Yorkshire terriers and beagles, as well as cats and birds, are being transported from Dandong through Sinuiju to Pyongyang. Dandong is a Chinese border city that serves as the primary commercial gateway for trade between China and North Korea.
Those who purchased these pets are believed to be members of the rich entrepreneurial class and party officials.
The general observation is that this could be the start of a proper pet industry in this isolationist country.
No official data on pets in North Korea
There are no official data on pets in North Korea, but ownership is gradually growing, particularly among the Pyongyang elites. Historically, North Koreans kept dogs and cats only for security purposes and rodent control. Kim's presence inside a pet shop, however, changed the narrative overnight.
"As a growing number of households in the capital city and other areas have pets these days, I saw to it that a new shop was built to sell pets and various accessories and offer specialized services," Kim was quoted as saying.
The third-generation dictator also called for expanding the production of pet-related goods, including pet food, grooming tools and veterinary medicines, Daily NK reported.
Observers in and out of the country, however, feel the sudden display of affection toward pets remains highly unusual, especially when many North Koreans remain dirt poor and are struggling to source food for themselves, let alone for a pet. Others believe it could be a way for the government to tap into idle private funds for state-run businesses.
But any criticism for the potential rebirth of a pet industry in North Korea is automatically nipped in the bud with the ruling family's visit to the pet shop.
"People say that since the supreme leader and his daughter visited a pet store themselves, who would dare openly criticize someone for keeping a dog as a pet," a Daily NK source said.
