It has been 12 years since liquid type e-cigarettes were first introduced in Korea.
But now, the industry is facing its most uncertain period in years after the health ministry strongly warned people not to vape.
Our Kim Bo-kyoung reports.
Just one week after South Korea's health ministry issued a strong warning not to use flavored liquid-type e-cigarettes... most of the nation's convenience stores have already yanked them from their shelves.
The four main convenience store chains… GS25, CU, 7-ELEVEN and Emart 24,... which together account for over 90% of stores nationwide, have decided to either cancel orders for more e-cigarettes or to stop selling the products immediately.
The first convenience store to react to the government's warning was GS25 run by GS Retail.
It immediately stopped selling the flavored liquid type e-cigarettes' pods... Tropical, Delight and Crisp pods made by JUUL Labs and SiiD TUNDRA pods produced by Korean brand KT&G.
"According to the health ministry's warning, GS Retail decided to stop selling flavored liquid type e-cigarettes and we cleared our shelves accordingly."
After GS Retail's announcement, other convenience stores, supermarkets and major duty-free stores in South Korea also followed suit.
Both vaping product-maker JUUL Labs and Korean brand KT&G agreed with the government's concerns,... but JUUL Labs stressed it does not manufacture products with THC or vitamin E compounds… which the U.S. CDC presented as the reason behind the lung disease cases associated with the use of vaping products.
Thus, some say the ministry's measures were far too drastic.
"I believe regulating liquid type e-cigarettes because of one patient without investigating the causal relationship thoroughly is an overly hasty decision."
With e-cigarettes rapidly being expelled from store shelves,... some people are scratching their heads about the ministry's seemingly kneejerk decision as it still doesn't have specific grounds for e-cigarettes' harmful effects on the human body.
Kim Bo-kyoung, Arirang News.