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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un seen smoking a cigarette in Pyongyang in Nov. 2014. (Yonhap News)

Has Kim Jong-un quit smoking cigarettes? While the North Korean leader has been seen smoking on several occasions, a recent article in the Workers’ Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun is drawing attention with its references to the damages of second-hand smoke and global anti-smoking campaigns.

A May 2 article titled “Anti-Smoking Campaigns Strengthened under Legal Controls” cited not only cigarette smoking’s role in causing various diseases but also the damages of second-hand smoke to children and other people in the vicinity.

“Around the world, messages about the harmfulness of cigarettes and the need for smoking bans are growing louder,” the article said.

The article went on to call smoking a “serious impediment to social development” and explain in detail about anti-smoking measures in other countries, including bans on sales to minors, warning messages, the designation of smoke-free areas, and cigarette tax increases.

An article from the newspaper’s Apr. 24 edition titled “Effects of Cigarettes on the Body” quoted Kim as saying, “We must have healthy bodies if we are to carry out a revolution.”

“Cigarettes are purely harmful, and quitting is best not only for your own health but for a sound cultural and moral life and for a rich and powerful future for the fatherland,” the article added.

The reports are unusual for North Korea, where Kim has previously been known as a chain smoker. While local news outlets avoided showing images of him with cigarettes early on in his term, a photograph of him smoking appeared on the Rodong Sinmun’s front page in late 2013. In late Dec. 2013, he was shown smoking next to pregnant wife Ri Sol-ju.

But no such images of him have appeared since Dec. 19, 2015, when he was shown with a cigarette while attending a Pyongyang subway test run. Kim has also not been seen smoking while observing the North’s recent missile test launches - in contrast to Jan. 2013, when he was shown smoking at the launch of a suspected KN-class missile. The absence of photos of him smoking, combined with the recent anti-smoking pieces in the Workers’ Party newspaper, have raised the possibility that Kim may have quit.

North Korea witnessed another anti-smoking wave under Kim‘s predecessor and father Kim Jong-il. After quitting in 2001, the elder Kim enacted a cigarette control law in 2005, likening smoking to “pointing a gun at your heart.” The campaign later fell by the wayside after Kim started smoking again around 2008.

By Kim Jin-cheol, staff reporter

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