North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un doesn’t exactly have a reputation for making ethical choices. And when it comes to his dining habits, that pattern pretty much continues. While his citizens face food shortages, he’s dining on expensive delicacies that most people will never even see in person. One of his favorites? Shark fin soup. A dish that’s been illegal in the United States since 2021.
The controversial dish that defines luxury
Shark fin soup has been part of Chinese imperial cuisine for centuries, honestly. It’s basically a status symbol more than anything else. The soup itself doesn’t get much flavor from the fins—it’s all about texture. That chewy, gelatinous consistency is what people are after. But here’s what nobody talks about: the fins themselves taste like almost nothing. I mean, the broth carries all the flavor while the fins just add that weird mouthfeel that’s supposed to be luxurious.
And this makes it even more troubling when you consider the cost. We’re not talking about money here, but the environmental cost. The last time I read about shark populations, the numbers were pretty alarming. Some species have declined by over 90% in recent decades. Total disaster. But for someone like Kim Jong-Un, that doesn’t matter when you’re trying to show off power and wealth at state banquets.
Why America banned it completely
The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act became law in 2021 after years of pushing by conservation groups. And it wasn’t just about protecting sharks—though that’s obviously a huge part of it. The practice of “finning” is so brutal that it’s hard to justify on any level. Fishermen catch sharks, slice off their fins while they’re still alive, then throw the mutilated bodies back into the ocean. The sharks can’t swim properly without their fins. They sink to the bottom and die slowly. Not even close to humane.
Senator Cory Booker was one of the lawmakers who introduced the bill back in 2016. He said shark finning was pushing some species toward extinction, which is accurate. Sharks are apex predators, so when you remove them from the ecosystem, everything else gets thrown off balance. Coral reefs suffer, fish populations change, the whole ocean food chain basically collapses in certain areas. Does anyone actually think soup is worth that?
Kim Jong-Un’s personal chef revealed everything
After trying to piece together what the North Korean leader actually eats, we got some pretty detailed information from an unexpected source. Kenji Fujimoto was Kim Jong-Un’s personal sushi chef for over a decade before he defected to Japan in 2001. And his stories are kind of wild. He described flying to Iran just to pick up caviar, going to Denmark for beer, traveling to Japan for the freshest fish. Nothing was too expensive or too far.
Fujimoto specifically mentioned that the Kim family wanted shark fin soup three times a week. Three times. That’s not just an occasional luxury—that’s a regular menu item. I’ve noticed that dictators tend to have pretty specific food demands, but this level of excess is extreme even by those standards. Anyway, it shows how disconnected the leadership is from the reality most North Koreans face daily.
The environmental damage keeps getting worse
Around 73 million sharks die every year because of the fin trade. That number is so large it’s almost hard to process. But when you break it down, it means that shark populations simply can’t recover fast enough. Sharks reproduce slowly compared to other fish species. Some don’t reach sexual maturity until they’re teenagers—in shark years, that is. So when you’re killing them by the millions annually, the math doesn’t work out.
Ocean conservation groups have been sounding the alarm for years now. They keep pointing out that sharks maintain the balance of marine ecosystems through their feeding habits. Remove the top predator and suddenly you’ve got problems cascading down through every level. Smaller predator fish populations explode, they overconsume their prey, vegetation suffers, reefs deteriorate. It’s basically a domino effect that starts with a bowl of soup.
Even celebrity chefs refuse to touch it
Gordon Ramsay is known for eating pretty much everything. But after filming a documentary about shark finning practices, he completely changed his stance on the soup. He avoids it at all costs now. The documentary showed the brutal reality of how fins are harvested, and honestly, it’s hard to watch. Ramsay isn’t exactly squeamish—the guy has butchered countless animals on camera—but even he drew the line here.
And he’s not alone in this. Many American chefs voluntarily removed shark fin soup from their menus even before the federal ban took effect. Some did it because of legal pressure from state laws that came first. Others did it because customers started asking uncomfortable questions. Why would you serve this? Don’t you care about the ocean? The reputation hit wasn’t worth keeping one controversial dish on the menu, at least from a business perspective.
It’s about power more than taste
For Kim Jong-Un, serving shark fin soup at state dinners isn’t really about enjoying the meal. I mean, if the fins don’t even add much flavor, what’s the point? The point is showing that he can. That he has access to things nobody else in North Korea could dream of having. While regular citizens struggle to find basic food supplies, he’s consuming endangered species multiple times per week. The contrast is super stark and totally intentional.
This kind of displays wealth through food consumption has a long history in imperial cultures. Chinese emperors did it. European royalty did it. But in the modern era, with everything we know about conservation and sustainability, it hits differently. Though I guess dictators aren’t exactly known for caring about global opinion or environmental responsibility. The soup functions as a symbol—proof that he operates by different rules than everyone else.
The tradition argument doesn’t hold up anymore
Defenders of shark fin soup sometimes point to its cultural significance in Chinese cuisine. And sure, it does have historical roots going back centuries. But tradition can’t justify continuation when the practice causes this much harm. Every time I’ve heard this argument, it feels incomplete. Lots of traditions get left behind as society evolves and we learn more about consequences. This should be one of them.
Younger generations in Asia are already moving away from shark fin soup in pretty significant numbers. They see it as an outdated practice that their grandparents’ generation valued but doesn’t make sense anymore. Conservation awareness is growing, especially in urban areas where education levels are higher. The demand is slowly declining in some markets. Though obviously not fast enough, and not among people like Kim Jong-Un who use the dish specifically because it’s controversial and expensive.
What happens when apex predators disappear
The science on this is actually pretty clear. When you remove apex predators from an ecosystem, things fall apart quickly. Sharks have been around for over 400 million years, surviving multiple mass extinction events. But they might not survive human demand for their fins. That’s sort of terrifying when you think about how resilient these animals are. They outlasted the dinosaurs but can’t outlast luxury dining trends?
Research shows that areas with healthy shark populations have more robust coral reefs and more diverse fish communities. The sharks keep everything in check by hunting sick and weak prey animals, which prevents disease spread and maintains genetic health in other species. It’s basically nature’s quality control system. Remove that system and you get cascading failures that affect commercial fishing, tourism, and coastal protection. The economic impacts alone should be enough to stop the practice, even if the ethical arguments somehow weren’t.
