A female dog named Haetnim walks at a kennel at the Peace Security Education Center on Yeonpyeong Island near the western sea border with North Korea on Oct. 28, 2019. (Yonhap)
YEONPYEONG ISLAND, Oct. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — An offspring of a pair of Pungsan-breed dogs gifted to South Korean President Moon Jae-in by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is growing healthily on an island just south of the inter-Korean sea border, the Incheon municipal government said Monday.
The white female puppy, named Haetnim, is one of the six offspring of the pair — one male named Songkang and a female named Gomi.
The North’s leader gave the dogs to Moon after their third summit in Pyongyang in September last year and Gomi had the six puppies, including Haetnim and a male puppy named Deul, on Nov. 9.
Haetnim and Deul have been adopted and raised by the Incheon municipal government.
Haetnim has been living at the Peace Security Education Center on Yeonpyeong Island off Incheon since August 31, while Deul has been raised at a park in the city west of Seoul.
The local government plans to raise the offspring of the dogs as a peace symbol on the island, an area that has been the site of bloody clashes between the two Koreas.
The North sunk a South Korean warship in the Yellow Sea in March 2010, killing 46 sailors. Pyongyang denied involvement in the sinking.
The North’s artillery attack in November that year on the Island killed two soldiers and two civilians.
On Monday, Incheon Mayor Park Nam-chun visited the island on a business trip and had a reunion with Haetnim after two months of separation.
“Haetnim looks to be growing healthily. I hope she will grow further as a mascot of inter-Korean peace in the future,” he said.
The Pungsan breed originates in a mountainous region of the North. They are known to be agile, clever and ferocious when threatened, but friendly and loyal to their human masters.
Along with Jindo dogs, bred from the southern island of Jindo in South Korea, the breed is considered one of the two most prized canine species on the Korean Peninsula.
(Yonhap)
