Efforts to control tobacco use in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK): an analysis of online media contents from the DPRK

Background: Tobacco use is one of the main public health concerns as it causes multiple diseases. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is one of the 182 Parties to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC). However, information is lacking regarding the tobacco use in the DPRK and the government’s efforts for tobacco control. The aim of the study was to analyze the DPRK online media content in Korean to assess the DPRK government’s efforts to control the tobacco use among its population, using MPOWER as a measuring tool. Methods: : Through the online search using the Korean keywords that corresponded to “tobacco”, “smoking cigarette”, and “smoking cessation” in English, a total of 47 online materials were found for the content analysis. Two examiners reviewed online materials to find the evidence of policy implementations to control tobacco use in the DPRK according to the MPOWER measures. The frequency of media coverage for each MPOWER measure was calculated. Results: : The appearance rate of each MPOWER measure on the online media was as follows: M 8.5%, P 44.7%, O 76.6%, W-package 12.8%, W-mass media 78.7%, E 4.3%, and R 0%. Conclusions: : The online media contents showed the DPRK government’s stewardship to promote population health by controlling tobacco use.