Grace Period Ends for Seoul Smoking Ban

It looks like smokers in Seoul are going to have less option of where they can smoke:

A three-month grace period ends today for violators of a smoking ban at all restaurants, coffee shops and Internet cafes, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Tuesday.

From today, anyone who violates the ban will be fined 100,000 won ($90), while the owners will have to pay 1.7 million won ($1,500).

When the government implemented the ban in January, it gave a grace period until the end of March, and has since tried to raise public awareness about the smoking ban.

“Smoking in those places has not been strongly controlled to date. We only fined owners who maintained smoking tables for the last three months,” said a ministry official. “However, the ban will be strictly applied from April.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but it will be interesting to see how strictly this ordinance is enforced.