The 'dogs of peace' that Kim Jong Un gave to South Korea provoke a political dispute

Two dogs presented by Pyongyang to Seoul during the latest attempt at peace negotiations between the two Koreas are at the center of a political dispute in South Korea.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
08 November 2022 Tuesday 04:30
11 Reads
The 'dogs of peace' that Kim Jong Un gave to South Korea provoke a political dispute

Two dogs presented by Pyongyang to Seoul during the latest attempt at peace negotiations between the two Koreas are at the center of a political dispute in South Korea. The country's former president, Moon Jae In, who has been the main caretaker of the pets, announced that he will hand over the animals to the state due to an alleged lack of legal and financial support from his successor, Yoon Suk Yeol.

The two white Pungsan hunting dogs, named Gomi and Songgang, were presented to Moon, then South Korea's president, by North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un at the 2018 peace summit. The dogs have lived with Moon ever since, even after his term ended in May, even though they are legal property of the state. With the departure of the former president, it was agreed that he would continue to be the caretaker through a legislative amendment that established the conditions for the transfer of the animals to his home and the costs of care.

But now Moon wants to return the dogs to the Presidential Archives - where they officially belong - because, according to him, President Yoon has blocked talks about providing a legal basis for the former president to keep them.

"The presidential office appears to be against leaving the care of the Pungsan dogs to former President Moon," the statement from Moon's office said. "We are stunned to see the malice of the current administration on display on an insignificant issue like this," he adds.

President Yoon, who already has four dogs and three cats, denied stopping Moon from keeping the dogs in a statement from his office on Monday, saying talks between relevant ministries were ongoing.

The Interior Ministry confirmed that the government is continuing talks with Moon to provide him with a monthly allowance of 2.5 million South Korean won (about 1,800 euros) for the care of the dogs.

The pair of dogs, one male and one female, were presented to Moon after his third summit with Kim in Pyongyang as a symbol of rapprochement between their respective leaders. The couple had a litter of seven puppies during Moon's presidency, who took the parents and one of the children to his private home after leaving office.

The Pungsan breed, a hunting dog with a thick white coat, is native to an area of ​​the same name in North Korea. They are historically a symbol of the thaw between the two Koreas, since in 2000, Kim Jong Il (father of the current supreme leader) gave two puppies of this breed to Kim Dae Jung. The South Korean leader returned the detail with two dogs. Jindo, called Peace and Reunification.