CINA

Former President Kim Dae-jung and 157 other prominent figures have filed a petition to the National Assembly, calling for a ban on the manufacture and sale of cigarettes from 2015.

The petition was initiated by Park Jae-gahb, president of the National Cancer Center, who is actively waging an anti-smoking campaign to prevent cancer and other smoking-related ailments.

Some 195 ruling and opposition lawmakers, including Rep. Yoo Jay-kun of the Uri Party, also expressed their intention to support the petition.

Yoo said Wednesday the petition, tentatively named a ``bill on prohibiting manufacture and sale of cigarettes’’, stipulates that anyone who makes and deals in cigarettes and their ingredients would be subject to a maximum of five years jail or a 50 million won ($50,000) fine.

He said petitioners decided to make the request to the Assembly since cigarettes and similar products are the main cause of various illnesses in humans, including lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

But they decided to give a grace period of 10 years to tobacco plant growers, manufacturers, and sales people so that they have time to take up other jobs.

Yoo added that he and other lawmakers would consider forwarding a bill similar to the petition in the near future.

But the Korea Cigarette Consumers Association denounced the move, saying that such a petition is an act of irresponsibility, disregarding smokers’ rights.

It also said if such a petition becomes law, it would destroy the livelihoods of more than one million people engaged in the tobacco industry.