Korean smokers are likely to have to pay nearly twice as much for a pack of cigarettes, which currently costs 2,500 won on average, starting next year.

The government announced on Thursday that it would push to raise tobacco prices by 80 percent by January as part of its measures to decrease the country’s high smoking rate among adult males to 29 percent by 2020.

“We will seek to raise tobacco prices by 2,000 won ($1.95) per pack and will also try to introduce a pricing system where cigarette prices will be in tandem with the nation’s inflationary pressure,” Health Minister Moon Hyung-pyo said in a statement.

Also starting in January, tobacco ads will be banned in all convenience stores nationwide. Pictorial health warnings will have to be printed on the side of every cigarette pack starting next year as well.

Currently, South Korea has the cheapest prices for cigarettes among OECD countries, along with Thailand and China. Meanwhile, it has one of the highest smoking rates for adult males ― 43.7 percent ― among the nations. The average smoking rate among adult males in all 34 member countries is 26 percent.

The last time the government raised tobacco prices was in 2004 by 500 won, but the nation’s smoking rate decreased by almost 12 percent over the next two years. The rate fell from 57.8 percent in 2004 to 45.9 percent in 2006.

The World Health Organization advises countries that have signed its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to hold their tobacco tax to at least 70 percent of the retail price. South Korea, a signatory of the treaty, has a tax of about 62 percent of the retail price.

After the increase, Korea’s tobacco tax will represent 73.7 percent of the retail price, according to Lee Kyung-eun, director of the Health Promotion division of the Health Ministry.

The proposed plan, however, already faces opposition from many politicians, including members of the ruling party, who argue that it is an “indirect way of increasing the taxes” paid by the nation’s low-income population, whose smoking rate is higher than high-income earners.

The plan must be approved by the parliament before the scheduled implementation in January.

The WHO predicts that if all countries raise their cigarette prices by 50 percent, some 11 million lives could be saved from smoking-related diseases in the next three years.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)