PYONGYANG, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea(DPRK) has pledged to reduce the nation's smoking rate to 30 percent by 2010, a high-ranking official said on Wednesday.

    "The current smoking rate in the DPRK has been down by about 15percent from 2000 due to the government's concern," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) here quoted Vice Public Health Minister Choe Chang-sik as saying.

    But the report failed to give the exact number of smokers in the country.

    The government has taken many measures to limit smoking, including adopting the 'Cigarette Control Law' and developing new medicine made by herbs that can suppress a smoker's desire for cigarettes, according to Choe.

    The remarks were made during a campaign to mark No Smoking Day on Wednesday.

    Now smokers in DPRK have been forbidden to enter university bylaw and an anti-smoking campaign has been extended to the whole country through newspapers and other public media, the KCNA reportsaid.

    "During the anti-smoking event held at the No Smoking Day on Wednesday in the capital of Pyongyang, many people and scholars have exchanged the experience of abstaining smoking," the KCNA added. Enditem