Health and Welfare Minister Jung Eun-kyeong has cited the need to overhaul anti-smoking policy across the board, three months after she ruled out a cigarette price increase in March, stating that "a cigarette price hike is not currently under review."
At a press briefing on the 12th of this month, Jung was asked about the need for a cigarette price increase. "While smoking rates are generally declining, they have recently been rising and falling repeatedly, and new forms of tobacco such as e-cigarettes, flavored cigarettes, and synthetic nicotine products are spreading, so there is a need to respond closely," she said. She added, "This is a situation that requires mobilizing both price policies and non-price policies," and "there is a need to create anti-smoking policies suited to the new changes in the environment."
Referring to the World Health Organization's (WHO) evaluation of anti-smoking policies, Jung added that Korea's cigarette prices remain low compared with those of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. "Korea's anti-smoking policy is operated relatively well, but there are weak aspects when it comes to regulating cigarette advertising and promotion at convenience stores," she said. "There is also the matter of cigarette prices being low compared with OECD levels."
Indeed, domestic cigarette prices are far cheaper than those abroad. Compared with countries with the highest cigarette prices, such as Australia (about 41,000 won) and New Zealand (about 32,000 won), there is a price gap of up to ninefold. The cigarette price was raised from 2,500 won to 4,500 won in 2015 and has remained frozen since. Earlier, during the Moon Jae-in administration in 2021, the Ministry of Health and Welfare put forward a "Comprehensive Health Promotion Plan" that included raising the cigarette price by 3,000 won, but it was scrapped after facing strong opposition.
However, Jung also made clear that she was not formalizing an immediate push for a cigarette price increase. "The National Health Promotion Comprehensive Plan includes content reviewing an increase in the health promotion charge, but it has not yet been reviewed as a specific policy," she said. "Because non-price policies are important as well as price policies, we will review it together in the process of newly preparing anti-smoking policies suited to the changed environment." She added, "Since price policy is also connected to an increase in the public's burden, a process of fully listening to public opinion and social opinion is necessary."
Related Content Also Included in the National Health Promotion Comprehensive Plan
The "6th National Health Promotion Comprehensive Plan (2026-2030)," announced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in March, included content to raise the National Health Promotion Charge levied on tobacco, lifting cigarette prices to the OECD average level (9,869 won).
After speculation about a cigarette price increase subsequently spread, Jung dismissed it, saying, "The government is not currently pursuing a cigarette price increase or imposing a health charge on alcohol." At the time, she stated firmly, "This is the mid- to long-term policy direction of the 10-year plan already announced in 2021," and "it is not newly added content this time."
Meanwhile, last year the WHO urged strong responses from countries through its "3 by 35" campaign, which calls for raising the real prices of tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks by at least 50% by 2035. The WHO explained that cigarette price policy is the most immediate and effective tool for lowering lung cancer incidence and smoking rates.
On par with cigarettes? The identity of 8 "silent assassins" that have taken over the Korean dinner table
