Bad Air

The sick man of Korea

Michael C. Moynihan from the November 2007 issue

After quickly conquering the capitals of Western Europe, the smoke-free Weltanschauung has spread to Pyongyang, the capital of Stalinist North Korea. According to the BBC, Kim Jong-Il has imposed a harsh public smoking ban in the hermit kingdom to shield “Dear Leader” from the effects of secondhand smoke.

Kim, who recently referred to consumers of the devil weed as the great “fools of the 21st century,” is said to be ailing, with his team of German doctors advising him to give up smoking and drinking. Last year, according to the official North Korean news agency KCNA, the regime implemented the Smoking Control Law, limiting public smoking and “stripping smokers of their right to go to university,” all in the interest of “public health.”

In North Korea, if famine doesn’t get you, lung cancer surely will.