Kim Jong-un issues bizarre ban as keeping pet dogs 'not compatible' with socialist model

North Koreans risk the wrath of Kim Jong-un as he has banned dogs being kept as pets in his nation.

The Socialist Women's Union of Korea insisted canines should only be kept for meat and fur, as they slammed the practice as "bourgeois."

Dog owners could be found to be in violation of the government's socialist ethos, the country's media and neighbouring South Korea's press reports.

A source told Daily NK, a newspaper in South Korea: "Treating a dog as a family member, who eats and sleeps with the family, is incompatible with the socialist lifestyle and should be strictly avoided."

Dressing dogs in clothes, as exemplified by Western celebrities like Paris Hilton, was also singled out for condemnation.

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The source continued: "The practice of dressing up dogs as if they were humans, putting pretty ribbons in their hair, wrapping them in a blanket, and burying them when they die is a bourgeois activity.

"It's one of the ways wealthy people waste money in a capitalist society."

Describing the regime's attitude, the source said: "Dogs are basically meat that's raised outside in accordance with their nature and then eaten when they die. Therefore, such behaviour is totally unsocialist and must be strictly eliminated."

The regime also emphasised that "the purpose of raising dogs is to collect more furs", the unnamed source added.

Rising levels of dog ownership - a practice described by the authorities as carrying "the stench of the bourgeoisie" - is understood to have motivated the latest command.

And while citizens were being given the chance to deal with the matter "quietly", non-compliance could trigger a "mass movement" to "eliminate" the practice, the source said.

The custom of keeping pet dogs must ultimately die out, union members were warned.

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Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), which documents the atrocities of the Kim regime, said it was a "ludicrous" rule.

He said: "What should I do with the dog I love so much? I can't just kill it, and I can't just abandon it.

"The Kim regime criminalises normal behaviour, including visiting a relative in a neighbouring village without a travel permit, crossing the border without regime approval, or possessing a religious book."

"The ongoing crackdown on pet dog ownership as non-socialist behaviour - this attempt to break the multi-millennial human-canine bond by ideological decree - is the epitome of ludicrous interdiction."

The practice of keeping dogs as pets was a late arrival in North Korea, where residents mostly kept dogs to guard their homes before the 2000s.

The source said: "There have always been families who had cats to catch mice, but there weren't many families with dogs.

"But that number has gradually increased, and recently there's been a noticeable rise in foreign breeds of dogs such as Pomeranians and Shih Tzus, which used to be a rare sight in North Korea."

Dog meat has historically been used across the whole of the Korean Peninsula but it has become increasingly controversial in the South.