Former South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday surrendered custody of two dogs given to him by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in 2018.
Moon claimed the administration of his successor Yoon Suk-yeol dragged its feet on completing the paperwork that would have allowed him to keep the dogs, an accusation the Yoon administration denied.
The dogs are a male named Songkang and a female named Gomi. They are a breed of medium-sized white-haired hunting dog known as Pungsan, the rarest of three breeds native to the Korean Peninsula. Pungsan dogs are bred only in the mountains of North Korea and are regarded as a national symbol and treasure.
Kim Jong-un’s father and predecessor as dictator, Kim Jong-il, presented two Pungsan dogs to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung as a gift in 2000. The South Korean president responded with a gift of two Jindo dogs, a breed native to Jindo Island in South Korea.
Kim Dae-jung’s Pungsan dogs were eventually moved from the Blue House, the South Korean presidential residence, to a zoo in Seoul and bred, producing a line of highly sought-after pups. The two original dogs died in 2013 of natural causes.
Kim Jong-un made a similar gift to then-President Moon Jae-in in September 2018. In November, the Blue House reported the Pungsan dogs had seven very photogenic puppies.
When Moon left office in May 2022, he took the two older Pungsan dogs and one of the puppies, which was named Dauni, to his home in the town of Yangsan, a picturesque residential community about 250 miles from Seoul. Moon described the dogs as “symbols of peace.”
A strange legal dispute arose, as the dogs are technically considered “presidential records” under South Korean law, and should have been returned to the Presidential Archives when Moon left office.
On the last day of Moon’s presidential tenure, he signed an unprecedented agreement with the Presidential Archives to keep the dogs, with some financial assistance provided by the Archives for their upkeep. Moon later stated the cost of caring for the dogs was roughly $1783 per month. The Archives office appeared to be satisfied with the arrangement, as agency representatives told reporters they had no facilities for taking care of live animals.
On Monday, Moon’s office announced he would surrender the dogs to the Presidential Archives, ostensibly because the administration of his successor Yoon Suk-yeol “seems to be negative toward entrusting the management of the Pungsan dogs to former President Moon.”
“If that’s the case, we can be cool about it, as such an entrustment is based on the goodwill of both sides,” Moon’s office said in a Facebook post.
“Ending it is regretful, given they are companion animals he grew attached to,” the post added.
“Ex-President Moon has been raising the Pungsan dogs for a long time. He is very disappointed to return the dogs, especially at this time when Gomi went through surgery. But he was comforted by being able to take care of them for six months more [after leaving office]. We believe that the Presidential Archives will take good care of the dogs, but we hope they will also care for them emotionally,” Moon’s office said on Tuesday.
The Korea Herald reported on Tuesday that Moon’s office claims the Yoon administration had an “unexplained objection” to revising the Presidential Records Act in a manner necessary for him to keep the dogs. Moon’s office claimed on Facebook that Yoon officials balked at the Interior Ministry’s budget proposal to cover the high cost of caring for the animals.
The Yoon administration denied attempting to take the dogs from Moon or interfering in negotiations between Moon and the Presidential Archives.
“It was entirely the decision of former President Moon Jae-in to return the Pungsan dogs to the Presidential Archives,” Yoon’s office insisted. “It is not true that former President Moon Jae-in tried to come up with a basis for raising the Pungsan dogs but the presidential office objected.”
Moon surrendered Songkang and Gomi to the Presidential Archives on Tuesday. The agency said the dogs were taken to a veterinary hospital for examinations, but their destination after that was unknown. The pup, Dauni, will remain in Moon’s care for the time being.
The Washington Post reported a good deal of controversy brewing online over the fate of the dogs, plus some harsh words exchanged between politicians supporting left-wing Moon and his conservative successor Yoon:
The dogs’ fate sparked an online outcry, with many South Koreans asking how they could be treated like standard property and offering to adopt the family themselves.
Moon’s claim also prompted a denial from President Yoon’s office, which said the relevant agencies are still discussing the situation. A lawmaker in the ruling People Power Party, Kweon Seong-dong, criticized the past president’s action as “shameful.”
“Is he giving up the dogs because he is no longer eligible to cover food and care cost with tax money?” Kweon asked on Facebook.
Yoon has been struggling with low approval ratings since soon after leaving office and is currently grappling with fallout from the Itaewon disaster, a Halloween stampede in an overcrowded Seoul entertainment district that killed 156 mostly young people, 26 of them foreigners.
When the fate of the dogs became a topic of discussion during the presidential transition, Yoon said he was prepared to care for them if they were considered presidential property, even though he already had four dogs and three cats.
“Dogs should be kept by the owner who raised them. But if they are given to me, I’ll raise them well,” Yoon remarked to reporters.