Korea: I Know, Let's Have A New Drug War!

News from Korea.

A group of people filed a petition with the Constitutional Court, Wednesday, asking the court to review the constitutionality of the law on the state’s tobacco industry.

In the petition, nine citizens claimed the law infringes on the people’s rights to health, saying the government acknowledges the harmfulness of smoking but allows tobacco companies to manufacture cigarettes and sell them.

If the court finds the law unconstitutional as they claim, the decision may bring huge repercussions as it will mean the state should ban production and circulation of tobacco products.

Yes, I know what you're thinking, but's it's not that Korea, we're talking about the {cough} 'free' one here.

“The right to health, guaranteed by the Constitution, means the government not only has the duty not to harm people’s health but also is responsible for making and implementing policy for people’s health,” the group said in the petition.

“The government should scrap the law and instead establish a law banning the production and trade of cigarettes. It also needs to categorize tobacco as drug,” they said.

Hideous human pecksniffs they may be, but at least they are sincere, especially if they thought of this all by themselves.

Participating members include Park Jae-gahb, a former director of the National Medical Center, who is an ardent anti-smoking campaigner; [...] Former Government Legislation Minister Lee Seog-yeon filed the petition on their behalf.

Not such a (lemon?) grass roots campaign after all, then.

So, South Korea joins Finland in the race to become the first country to ban smoking entirely; refuse hefty tax receipts; and create an entirely new - and extraordinarily lucrative - market for organised criminal activity. Bravo!

Meanwhile, in that dictatorial place over the border ...

Signs are that North Korea’s new leader Kim Jong-un is a smoker.

Kenji Hujimoto, a former Japanese chef for the late Kim Jong-il, was reported to have said that Jong-un began to smoke cigarettes and drink liquor when he was around 15. He said Jong-un sometimes asked him to share cigarettes he had.

Hujimoto called Jong-un “one who loves to smoke,” adding that he likes to smoke Yves Saint Laurent, among others.

Both his father and grandfather are known for their love for cigarettes.

Luckily for South Korea, and their nine patriotic anti-tobacco champions, I'm sure North Korea would have no designs on undermining their neighbours by copping a deaf 'un to cross border tobacco smuggling operations, should tobacco become illegal by order of a Seoul court.

Nope, nothing could be further from their minds.