A signboard of the U.S. e-cigarette brand JUUL is set up at a convenience store in Yongsan, Seoul, Friday. The new tobacco device went on sale here on the day. / Yonhap



By Kim Jae-heun



The government will step up efforts to curb smoking by young people as a new type of e-cigarette has made its Korean debut, catching on with adolescents.



"New e-cigarettes, including JUUL that are popular among teenagers overseas, have been or will be launched in Korea, so we will cooperate with relevant authorities to intensively control the sales of e-cigarettes and their devices to minors at convenience stores and retail stores until June," the Ministry of Health and Welfare said in a statement.



Since its 2017 U.S. release, the tobacco device has taken more than 70 percent of the e-cigarette market. It went on sale here Friday. The vaporizing pen has become a big trend among young people in the U.S., raising concerns over tobacco addiction in teenagers.



"Many foreign countries, such as the United States, are struggling to deal with young people smoking these new e-cigarettes, especially since using them can lead to nicotine addiction at an early age," the ministry said.



Amid growing concerns that Korea may follow suit, the health authority plans to patrol local cigarette retail stores with police to highlight the harmfulness of the new products and inform store owners not to sell them to teenagers.



It will also conduct a crackdown on people smoking e-cigarettes in prohibited areas until July.



Schools and parents will be informed about the harmfulness of students' e-cigarette use so they can be controlled.



Other information including the shapes of e-cigarette products and their features as well as preventive measures to keep them out of the hands of teenagers will be provided at schools starting this month.



Online e-cigarette stores are subject to the control, too.



The Korea Health Promotion Institute (KHPI) will operate watchdog groups to control e-cigarette marketing starting June and report sales and advertising to the police when found.



The KHPI will establish an online report center to encourage people to report illegalities they witness.



The government will conduct a survey to study the local e-cigarette market and smoking rate to use for forming non-smoking policies in the future.



"Teenagers' use of a new type of cigarette can cause not only their nicotine addiction and health problem, but also chronic smoking habit. Whatever the kind is, it is important to prevent them from using any kinds of cigarette at a young age," a ministry official said.



The market share of heat-not-burn (HNB) cigarettes has skyrocketed to 11.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, up from 2.2 percent in 2017.



The share has nearly quintupled since it went on sale in May 2017. The sales of HNB cigarettes from January to March recorded 92 million packs, jumping by 33.6 percent from a year earlier.



The health ministry said it will revise the Health Promotion Law to illustrate the typical hazard alert text and pictures on e-cigarette packages as well as its devices.



The authority also decided to ban cigarette companies from promoting and advertising their products.



However, it will not raise the price of e-cigarettes as it can trigger strong opposition from the public and it will focus on creating an environment to discourage smoking.

