The lese-majeste law, which shields King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his close family from criticism, is often referred to as 112 in Thailand after the relevant section of the criminal code. TLHR said the sentence was the longest handed down for royal defamation, beating the previous record of 43 years imposedContinue Reading
SEOUL: The nuclear envoys of South Korea, the United States, and Japan condemned North Korea for its recent missile tests, arms trade with Russia and increasingly hostile rhetoric at a meeting in Seoul on Thursday (Jan 18). Pyongyang’s transfer of short-range ballistic missiles and other weapons to Russia for useContinue Reading
TOKYO: Japan aims to become the fifth country to put a spacecraft on the moon when it attempts the precision landing of the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) probe on Friday (Jan 18). Dubbed the “moon sniper”, SLIM will put to the test an experimental technology the Japan AerospaceContinue Reading
The clip has garnered more than 1.2 million views. Some petrol kiosks are resorting to technology to ensure that foreign motorists are unable to access RON95 petrol. Mr Faisal told CNA that his team has a “special mechanism” that would halt the flow of RON95 petrol to a foreign-registered vehicle.Continue Reading
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Thursday (Jan 18) it carried out strikes against militant targets in Iran, with Tehran reporting a death toll of seven civilians after staging its own air raid in Pakistan earlier this week. Nuclear-armed Pakistan and neighbouring Iran are both battling simmering insurgencies along their sparsely populated borderContinue Reading
WASHINGTON: A US congressional committee on China has sent a letter to the Secretary of the Navy raising doubts about a plan to move fuel from Hawaii to storage facilities across the Indo-Pacific and warning that the US military risks being unprepared for a possible conflict. In a letter datedContinue Reading
TOKYO: The winner of Japan’s most prestigious literary award has acknowledged that about “5 per cent” of her futuristic novel was penned by ChatGPT, saying generative AI had helped unlock her potential. Since the 2022 launch of ChatGPT, an easy-to-use AI chatbot that can deliver an essay upon request withinContinue Reading
China claims Taiwan as its own territory with no right to state-to-state ties, a position Taiwan strongly disputes. Worldwide, a dozen countries maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taipei. In a statement on Thursday, Marshall Islands said its ties with Taiwan were “rock solid”, and in the region’s best interest. “TheContinue Reading
JAKARTA: Indonesia’s presidential candidates have pledged to strengthen the government’s anti-corruption agency, laying out their plans ahead of the country’s Feb 14 election, to counter pervasive graft in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. The candidates’ promises, made at a dialogue late on Wednesday (Jan 17), come as experts bemoan a slowdownContinue Reading
Since 2014, some of these municipalities have agreed to compensate dog meat retailers for closing dog meat stalls in traditional markets. However, now that a full ban is coming into effect, dog meat farmers are requesting compensation schemes as this new law will directly affect their livelihoods.
The Korean Dog Meat Association has been arguing that the Bill represents an abuse of power that overlooks the perspective of many South Koreans, and that it infringes on the right to choose what one wants to eat. Last December, the Association demanded compensation for farmers of 2 million won per individual dog and a grace period of 10 years after the ban.
While the ban may be good news for Korean dogs, dog lovers and for animal protectionists, it adversely affects those whose livelihoods depend on the domestic trade and who have practised the profession for generations.
The change does not necessarily mean an end to the consumption of dog meat in South Korea. Dog meat consumption will continue to be lawful (presumably supplied by imported meat).
Still, this is a milestone for the Korean relation to dogs that cements the dog’s privileged status, in contrast to other animals whose commodification as meat remains normalised and invisible.
Julien Dugnoille is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Exeter. John Knight is Reader in Anthropology and Ethnomusicology, Queen’s University Belfast. This commentary first appeared in The Conversation.