Newly elected South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol (62) and First Lady Kim Keon-hee (49) even have four dogs and three cats. Now the president’s wife wants to end the custom of eating dog meat.
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– Korea and China are the only countries of the major economies where people still eat dog meat. Now this must end, the first lady said in an interview with the newspaper Seoul Shinmun on Monday, according to The Korea Times.
It is only weeks since the former public prosecutor Yoon Suk-yeol won the election, with promises of a tougher line against North Korea and against corruption. Now the president’s wife Kim Keon-hee is facing the country’s lack of animal welfare and the tradition of eating dog meat.
–In a newspaper interview, she asks the government to take action to ban dog meat and asks for stricter penalties for animal abusers. She believes South Korea has among the “weakest animal protection laws” in the world and compares animal cruelty to domestic violence.
“Such a ban will ultimately be an expression of respect for man’s best friend, and it also means respect for life,” she said, adding that nearly 15 million people have pets in South Korea.
–Dog meat consumption in Korea has declined dramatically in recent decades due to perceptions that the tradition is becoming an international embarrassment. Nevertheless, advocates argue that people should have the freedom to choose what they eat.
South Korea’s new president Yoon Suk-yeol is a political novice known for his uncompromising investigations into some of the country’s most high-profile corruption scandals.
For many years, his wife has been the head of a company that runs art exhibitions. In December, she made a public apology after allegations that she forged an ID to take a part-time lecturer position at a local university, reports Korea Herald.
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