Market & legal data of the tobacco alternative sector in South Korea

18th February 2025: South Korea: The two main political parties in the parliament, the People Power Party (ruling party) and the Democratic Party of Korea (opposition party), have failed to reach an agreement over the bill seeking to expand the definition of tobacco products to products derived from all parts of the tobacco plant (including stems, roots and synthetic nicotine), press reports. Therefore, the approval of the bill is postponed.
11th February 2025: South Korea: The bill seeking to expand the definition of tobacco products to products derived from all parts of the tobacco plant (including stems, roots and synthetic nicotine) failed to pass the parliament's Finance Committee yesterday, press reports. Its discussion has therefore been postponed to an undefined date. Currently, the definition only covers products derived from the leaves of the tobacco plant, which is why products derived from the other parts of the plant remain unregulated.
6th February 2025: South Korea: The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has opened the enforcement regulations and the enforcement decree of the Tobacco Harmful Ingredients Disclosure Act for public consultation. The regulations and the decree develop the details of the obligation for manufacturers and importers of all tobacco and nicotine products to test every product for harmful ingredients every two years and submit the results to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. The public consultation ends on 18th March, and the law enters into force on 1st November 2025.
29th November 2024: Global: The fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) on the international plastics treaty is currently taking place in Busan, South Korea, and will run until 1st December. The main goal is to finalise the text of an international legally binding instrument on plastics pollution. During the previous session of INC-4 in Ottawa, Canada, several countries urged for a ban on cigarette filters to be included in the treaty – a call that was also supported by the World Health Organization.
7th November 2024: South Korea: An official from the Planning and Finance Committee in the parliament said that there is a high possibility that bills amending the Tobacco Business Act to include synthetic nicotine in the definition of tobacco products are referred to the plenary session and approved in the parliament in November or December of this year, press reports. Despite the fact that both main political parties in the country seemingly agree on the need to regulate synthetic nicotine and to extend the definition of tobacco products to products derived from all parts of the tobacco plant, bills to this end have never succeeded.
21st October 2024: South Korea: A group of nine members of parliament from the opposition Democratic Party of Korea has introduced a bill seeking to extend the applicable labelling and packaging requirements and advertising restrictions for e-liquids and heated tobacco consumables to electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco devices.
21st October 2024: South Korea: A group of ten members of parliament from the opposition Democratic Party of Korea has introduced a bill seeking to expand the definition of tobacco products to products derived from all parts of the tobacco plant, including stems, roots and synthetic nicotine. Currently, the definition only covers products derived from the leaves of the tobacco plant, which is why products derived from the other parts of the plant remain unregulated. This is not the first time that a bill has been introduced to this end in the parliament, but none have been successful.
16th October 2024: South Korea: The Ministry of Health is launching an anti-smoking advertising campaign through various media platforms – including TV, social media, radio and online – to raise awareness about the dangers of e-cigarettes. The ministry seeks to discredit the argument that e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes. Heated tobacco products, just like e-cigarettes, are subject to the same regulatory framework as traditional tobacco products.
5th September 2024: South Korea: A group of ten members of parliament from the opposition Democratic Party of Korea has introduced a bill seeking to ban the sale of tobacco and nicotine products in stores offering them through vending machines but at the same time not operated by any retailer (unmanned stores).
30th July 2024: US - General: Philip Morris International (PMI) has announced a collaboration with KT&G, a South Korean manufacturer of tobacco and nicotine products. The companies have formalised a non-binding memorandum to collaborate on regulatory submissions to commercialise KT&G’s heated tobacco products (HTPs) in the US. This means both companies will work together on premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for these products.
15th July 2024: South Korea: A group of ten members of parliament from the ruling party, the People Power Party, has introduced a bill amending the Tobacco Business Act to regulate products composed of synthetic nicotine. In May, the government announced its plans to close the legal loophole that allows products containing synthetic nicotine to be freely circulated in the country because the current definition of tobacco-derived products only encompasses naturally derived nicotine.
21st June 2024: South Korea: Yesterday (20th June), the Ministry of Health and Welfare updated the health warnings that heated tobacco, oral tobacco and nicotine pouches must carry. The new requirements, which are updated every two years, will apply from 23rd December 2024 to 22nd December 2026.

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