North Korean state media has advised citizens to eat dog-meat soup as a traditional remedy against the ongoing heatwave gripping the Korean peninsula.
In a health feature published this week the ruling Workers’ Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun quoted a doctor at Pyongyang General Hospital recommending measures to cope with extreme temperatures.
Alongside cooling foods such as watermelon, cucumbers and mung beans, the article listed “nutritious foods” including dog-meat soup (dangogi guk), fish porridge and red-bean porridge.
A separate piece described the soup as a traditional summertime dish and revived the proverb that “even if dog-meat soup spills on the top of your foot during the dog days of summer, it becomes medicine.”
The paper also noted that a national dog-meat cooking competition had been held earlier in the year.
North Korea has promoted dog meat soup as part of its traditional food culture for years and regional recipes as recognised as cultural heritage and.
Temperatures on the peninsula have reached or exceeded 40°C in parts of the North, while South Korea recorded an all-time high of 42.5°C.
State media has portrayed leader Kim Jong Un enduring the heat during inspections as a show of solidarity.
Dog-meat soup has long been promoted by Pyongyang as a health tonic, though it remains relatively expensive for ordinary citizens.
The practice stands in contrast to South Korea, where the breeding, slaughter and sale of dogs for human consumption is being phased out and will be banned from February 2027.
Eating dogs is highly controversial in the rest of the world, due to their status as companion animals. They are known to have a high intelligence and can grow emotional strong bonds with humans.
