The smoking rate among South Korean men has dropped by 5.8 percentage points, partly because of the 80 percent hike in cigarette prices which took effect in January, government data said.

According to the study, which surveyed 1,262 Korean men aged 19 or older from May to June, 78 of them said they had quit smoking within the past year. Among them, 48 of them said they had quit because of the price increase. Currently, 35 percent of Korean men are smoking, the study said.

However, as this was the first such research organized by the government on the smoking rate, the statistics do not have comparable data to prove the statement that fewer Koreans are smoking because of the price hike in cigarettes.

The Health Ministry last year announced its plan to raise tobacco prices by 80 percent -- 2,000 won ($1.70) per pack -- as part of its measures to decrease the country’s high smoking rate. Before it took effect on Jan. 1, Korea had the cheapest average price -- 2,500 won -- for a pack cigarettes among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations.

The move has been criticized by the public and some politicians, who claimed that it was an “indirect way of increasing the taxes” paid by the nation’s low-income population, whose smoking rate is higher than high-income earners.