President Moon Jae-in on Monday brought up the need to consider prohibiting eating dog meat.

His spokesperson Park Kyung-mee said the president raised the issue during his weekly policy consultation with Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum, who gave a briefing about measures to improve oversight of abandoned pets.

Kim talked about increasing the pet registration rate and tightening inspections of animal protection centers. Moon, a well-known dog lover, said that perhaps the time has come to prudently consider prohibiting dog meat consumption.

Leading animal rights group KARA, or Korea Animal Rights Advocates, had delivered a petition to the presidential office in 2018 asking for such a ban.

South Korea's Animal Protection Law prevents the brutal slaughter of dogs and cats but not their consumption.