From: International Business Times
By Marcy Kreiter
Mercurial North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a habitual smoker, has ordered senior officials to smoke only domestic cigarettes, calling foreign smokes unpatriotic, the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday. Kim said domestic cigarettes are good enough, a source told Yonhap.
Yonhap earlier reported North Korea planned to crack down on bulk tobacco sales ahead of January’s scheduled hike in tobacco prices. Storeowners selling large volumes of cigarettes could face two years in prison and a 50 million won ($45,000) fine.
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It’s unclear whether Kim’s directive to senior officials applies just to imported cigarettes or to counterfeit cigarettes bearing foreign labels. A report by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, based in Washington, earlier this year noted the Hermit Kingdom
manufactures millions of cartons of cigarettes bearing such labels as Marlboro and ships them worldwide to raise hard currency.
