By Lee Min-hyung

North Korea is making a concerted effort to reduce the regime’s high cigarette-smoking rate by banning the act in public places as well as outlawing the sale of foreign cigarettes.

“We have also prohibited people from using electronic cigarettes and smokeless cigarettes,” Choi Hyun-sook, a high-ranking official at the state-controlled health ministry, told the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Saturday.

“To create a social environment where non-smoking is encouraged, the North has enforced strict smoking bans in public areas… and launched hygiene promotion campaigns.”

He said the anti-smoking movement had helped reduce the smoking rate among men from 50.3 percent in 2009 to 43.9 percent in 2014. There were no female smokers at all, he added.

“The number of young smokers has sharply decreased due to the toughened (anti-smoking) education in schools and society,” he said.

To mark “World No Tobacco Day” on Sunday, the North held a forum on Wednesday to discuss ways to control tobacco.