 It also closed all restaurants serving "Gaejang-guk" to better improve the country's image to Western visitors.A 1998 Salon article reported that despite officially being banned by the government for a decade, nearly 20,000 restaurants at the time were still serving dog meat.South Korea's successful bid to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1996 prompted a new wave of criticism against its dog meat culture.