Army Nonsan Training Center "Trainees Prohibited from Smoking Again"

Nonsan Training Center, "Due to Inadequate Smoking Area Facilities"
Army Guarantees Smoking at 10 Division Recruit Training Centers

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] From now on, trainees enlisted at the Army Nonsan Training Center will be prohibited from smoking. The Army halted the pilot allowance of smoking at the Army Training Center, which was implemented early last year as part of 'guaranteeing smoking rights,' after just two months.

According to the Army on the 8th, the Army Training Center has maintained a full smoking ban policy since February 1995 until the pilot allowance of smoking early last year. When the Army Training Center allowed smoking on a trial basis at the end of January last year, it was perceived as an attempt to abandon and revise the smoking ban guidelines for the first time in 27 years, which led to public opposition from anti-smoking groups.

After about two months of pilot application of smoking allowance, the Army Training Center decided to discontinue the pilot and maintain the smoking ban guidelines, judging that the rights of non-smokers to avoid smoke (the right of non-smokers to reject cigarette smoke) were not guaranteed.

However, among about 20 division-level subordinate recruit training units in the Army, 10 allow trainees to smoke. A military official explained, "To guarantee the right to avoid smoke, which takes precedence over the right to smoke, separate smoking areas must be established, but since such facilities are not currently equipped at the Nonsan Training Center, the smoking ban policy will be maintained."

The Navy and Air Force do not allow trainees to smoke. Medical experts point out that smoking cessation support measures for soldiers need to be strengthened.

After the pilot allowance of smoking at the Army Training Center last year, the Smoking Cessation Society issued a statement criticizing it and urged the military to implement more active smoking cessation support measures targeting soldiers, as their smoking rate is higher than that of the general public aged 19 to 29.