South Korea considers stricter e-cigarette regulations

The government of South Korea plans to push for tougher legal restrictions on the sale of e-cigarettes, the finance ministry announced April 22. Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, who also serves as deputy prime minister, told lawmakers in the National Assembly that he would soon “come up with a comprehensive proposal” on e-cigarettes that would ban explicit advertisement of the products, according to a story in The Korea Herald.

According to the country’s health and welfare laws, tobacco product advertising is only allowed inside authorized stores, however, many local e-cigarette dealers explicitly display advertisements and fliers for the products—which are officially classified as cigarette products—on the streets.

“We will see to a comprehensive measure in cooperation with other related ministries,” Choi said.