North Korea bans smoking in some public places

Not the first country to ban smoking in public.

Belmont Lay | November 06, 2020, 01:22 AM

North Korea has banned smoking in some public spaces, following the hermit country's Supreme People's Assembly's introduction of some prohibitions on Nov. 4, 2020.

This is to provide citizens with "hygienic living environments," state media KCNA reported.

The tobacco-prohibition law aims to protect the lives and health of North Koreans by tightening the legal and social controls on the production and sale of cigarettes, KCNA quoted the legislature as saying.

The law stipulates that smoking is banned in specific venues.

These places include political and ideological education centres, theatres and cinemas, and medical and public health facilities, KCNA said.

High rates of smoking

North Korea has high rates of smoking tobacco.

Some 43.9 per cent of the male population are smokers as of 2013, according to the World Health Organisation.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is known as a chain smoker.

He is frequently seen with a cigarette in hand in photographs in state media.

Kim was spotted smoking at a railway station in the southern Chinese city of Nanning in 2019 on his way to Hanoi for his second summit with President Donald Trump.

We deliver more stories to you on LinkedInMothership Linkedin

Top photos via Unsplash