A pair of dogs gifted by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2018 are now mired in a South Korean political row, with the country’s former president blaming his conservative successor for a lack of financial support as he gave the animals up.
Following their peace summit in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, in September 2018, Moon Jae-in, a liberal who resigned from office in May, was given the two white “Pungsan” hunting dogs by Kim.
The canines were taken by Moon and one of their seven puppies after he left government even though they are technically state property. The move was made possible by a change of law in March that allowed presidential gifts to be managed outside of the Presidential Archives if they were animals or plants.
However, Moon’s office announced on Monday that he had made the decision to stop caring for the three dogs because President Yoon Suk Yeol’s administration was refusing to pay for their food and medical care. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said that the dogs were returned to the government on Tuesday and that the parent dogs originally sent from Kim were being examined at a veterinary hospital in the city of Daegu.
In a statement posted to Facebook, Moon’s office charged Yoon’s office with “explicably” opposing the ministry’s request for funding to care for the animal.
The ministry confirmed it had drafted a budget plan to provide a monthly 2. 5 million won ($3040) in subsidies, including 500,000 won ($608) for the dogs’ food and veterinary care and 2 million ($2430) for hiring workers to look after them.
However, the ministry claimed that “opposing opinions” from both the ministry and the Ministry of Government Legislation were the reason the plans were put on hold for months.
“It seems that the presidential office, unlike the Presidential Archives and the Interior and Safety Ministry, has a negative view about entrusting the care of the Pungsan dogs to former President Moon,” Moon’s office said.
If so, Yoon’s administration ought to be “cool” about terminating that trust, according to Moon’s office.
It stated that although Moon had grown attached to the companion animals, there would be disappointment and regrets and no way to reject the termination of entrustment.
Yoon’s office shifted the blame to Moon, saying it never prevented him from keeping the animals and that the discussions about providing financial support were still ongoing.
“It was entirely the decision of former President Moon Jae-in to return the Pungsan dogs to the Presidential Archives” instead of waiting out a legislative amendment to secure the subsidies, Yoon’s office said.
Online users complained that the dogs were being treated only as property after Moon and Yoon’s spat over them.
Moon met Kim three times in 2018 and worked hard to arrange Kim’s meetings with former US President Donald Trump, placing a high priority on inter-Korean rapprochement as he staked his one presidential term on it.
However, the diplomacy was never able to bounce back from the failure of the second Kim-Trump summit in Vietnam in 2019, when the Americans turned down North Korea’s demands for significant sanctions relief in exchange for demolishing an outdated nuclear facility, which would have amounted to a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.
Kim has since vowed to bolster his nuclear deterrent to counter “gangster-like” US pressure and sped up his weapons development despite limited resources and pandemic-related difficulties. This year, the North has launched dozens of missiles, taking advantage of the distraction provided by Russia’s conflict in Ukraine to accelerate the development of its military and increase pressure on the United States and its allies in the region.
Kim Jong Un’s gift of dogs is the source of a dispute in South Korea.
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