South Korea recently announced an 80 percent hike in the price of cigarettes in an attempt to curb the country’s smoking rate, which was particularly high among adult men.

Lorea’s male smoking rate stood at 43.7 percent in 2012 and was one of the highest of all members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

The figure marked a sharp drop from 48.3 percent in 2010. The results were from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey commissioned by the Health Ministry.

The OECD Factbook 2013 showed that 41.6 percent of Korean men smoked daily, a figure higher than any other OECD member country.