North Korean Authorities Crackdown Women for Smoking in Public
- Daily NK
Then, in 2020 that North Koreans privately called the anti-smoking laws hypocritical because Kim Jong Un is often pictured in state media puffing away on cigarettes, including in front of children at an orphanage he was visiting around the time the law was passed.
But a recent rise in public smoking by women is the cause for the recent crackdown, which has police monitoring places like restaurants and marketplaces, the North Pyongan resident said.
“This is the first crackdown like this,” she said, and described a June 10 incident where two women in their 40s were fined 30,000 won (US$3.60) for smoking after eating a meal at a restaurant in the city of Sinuiju, which lies on the border with China.
“The police warned them that if they are caught smoking again they will be fined 100,000 won ($12) and if they are caught a third time they could be imprisoned at a disciplinary labor center for a month,” the resident explained.
In the city of Anju, in South Pyongan province, police are even going undercover to try to catch women smoking.
“Since the beginning of this month, social security agents in civilian clothes have been visiting every restaurant near the provincial arts theater in Anju,” the source said.
“Many artists and rich people [go there] and many of the women smoke cigarettes.”
The South Pyongan resident said that until recently women who smoke did so secretly, but now they are smoking in front of others. She attributed the rise in female smoking to the greater stresses they face earning money to feed their families.
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