Kim Yong-ik, a medical professor at the Seoul National University, and his research team released the results of the survey conducted on 800 smokers and 400 non-smokers Wednesday.

Smoking respondents responded skeptically to a rise in the price of cigarettes. Regarding the current price of cigarettes, 46.8 percent of the surveyed smokers answered that it is high and 46.9 percent said it is appropriate. 30 percent of non-smoking respondents said the price is low and 29 percent answered that it is steep. 19 percent of smoking respondents favored a rise in the price of cigarettes, while 65.7 percent of non-smoking respondents supported a price increase.

If the price goes up to W2,500, 9.4 percent of smokers said they would quit smoking. 55.6 percent answered that they would stop smoking if the price increases to more than W5,000. 36.6 percent of smoking respondents said that they would not quit smoking even if the price rises to more than W7000 per pack. Currently, prices of most cigarettes including Esse are set at W2,000.

Based on the result, the surveyors assumed that the consumption of cigarettes would decrease by 8.3 to 11.1 percent if the cigarette price increases by W500. The smoking rate of adult men would go down by 1.7 to 3.4 percentage points from the current 61.8 percent. If the price rises by W1,000, the rate would descend by 3 to 6 percentage points.

Professor Kim said only when the price goes up by more than 20 percent would it force more people to quit smoking. An increase in the price of cigarettes would be an effective method to bring down the smoking rates among low income families and youth.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare is promoting a plan that would increase cigarette prices by W500 in the second half of this year and an additional W500 annually after that.

(Kim Dong-seop, dskim@chosun.com )