North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly has banned smoking in certain public places to better citizens’ “hygienic living environments”, reports Reuters.

State media KCNA stated that the new law aims to tighten the legal and social controls on the production and sale of cigarettes which will protect the lives and health of North Koreans.
North Korea has an especially high tobacco smoking rate with data from the World Health Organization showing that 43.9 per cent of the male population smoked as of 2013. North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un is also known as a heavy smoker and is often pictured with a cigarette in his hand.
According to Reuters, state media KCNA said that the new law will ban smoking in certain venues such as political and ideological education centres, theatres and cinemas and medical and public health facilities.