Korea's Provinces Circling KT&G

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 01/20/2010

The Governor of South Korea's Gyeonggi province, Kim Moon-soo, last week told a court in Suwon that cigarette butts were the cause of more than 12 per cent of fires in the province, according to a story by Park Si-soo for The Korea Times. Gyeonggi filed a damages suit against KT&G in January last year demanding WON1 billion in compensation for cigarette-related fire damage. The country's largest local government says that cigarette-related fires cost it an estimated WON79.4 billion between 2005 and 2007. Gyeonggi alleges that though KT&G has been selling cigarettes with reduced ignition propensity in the US since 2004, it has continued to sell on its domestic market traditional products that lack such protection. KT&G says the primary cause of fires lies with smokers, not with the products they are using. It points out that cigarettes with lowered ignition propensity are not fire-proof. Seoul and other provincial governments are said to be ready to file suits against KT&G if the verdict goes in favor of the plaintiff. Enditem