War of attrition in parks ban on tobacco smoking

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is preparing to make more Han River parks no-tobacco-smoking zones, according to a story in The Korea Times.

Currently, of the 12 parks along the river, only Sunyudo Park in western Seoul is a no-smoking zone.

The city government had considered banning smoking at all of the parks but, since it thought that such a policy would create a backlash from smokers, it dropped the plan, at least temporarily.

Now, it is considering a battle of attrition under which it would implement bans at selected parks and then gradually expand those bans to other parks.

To sweeten the pill for smokers, the city government has apparently said that if all the parks were to be designated no-smoking areas, the city might build smoking booths in them.