North Korea Launches Anti-Smoking Campaign Website, Even Though Kim Jong-un Is A Heavy Smoker

JAKARTA - North Korea has opened an anti-smoking website on a special internet network in its country. This is a form of propaganda tool for the communist state to campaign against smoking.

Yet the current supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, is a smoker. Until now, he has not stopped smoking.

Quoted from Yonhap, Sunday, August 23, Meari, one of North Korea's propaganda websites, said that an anti-smoking research center opened an “Anti-smoking 1.0” site on the country's computer network system since last month. The site provides information to the public about the positive benefits of quitting smoking.

The website cannot be accessed from outside because North Korea's tightly controlled computer network, Kwangmyongsong, is cut off from the global internet to prevent people from accessing outside information.

Meari said the site provided science-based information was the key to the anti-smoking campaign. According to the website, the research center also offers a service to check the amount of nicotine in a smoker's body while producing teas and other beverages believed to be conducive to smoking cessation.

North Korea has stepped up its anti-smoking efforts in recent years. They started from revising a law last year to restrict foreign cigarette imports and ban e-cigarettes and e-cigarettes.

North Korea is also expanding smoke-free zones in public premises and buildings. Despite the campaign, Kim Jong-un hasn't stopped smoking at all.

This can be seen from a number of photos reported by North Korean state media, in which Kim often talks with officials while holding a cigarette in his hand.

Kim Jong-un has long been known as a heavy smoker. On his long train journey to Vietnam for his second summit with US President Donald Trump, Kim is seen quitting to smoke.

Photos circulating showed him smoking on a train platform with his sister Kim Yo-jong holding an ashtray next to him.