Korea will indefinitely uphold its policy that bars television ads of unhealthy foods from airing at prime time for kids, the government said after a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.

The policy, continually renewed since its implementation in 2011, calls for barring ads of high-calorie and low-nutritional foods as well as highly caffeinated products from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m, government officials said.

Seoul introduced the ad prohibition seven years ago with a three-year limitation and has since kept renewing the ban.

The latest renewal marks the permanent placement of the ban in efforts to combat rising levels of childhood obesity and to promote healthy eating for children, the officials said.

Childhood obesity has risen from 6.8 percent in 1998 to 10 percent in 2013, climbing six-fold for boys and three-fold for girls, a Korean Endocrine Society study showed.

Meanwhile, the government designated butyrfentanyl, along with 13 other substances, as narcotics due to the risk of potential drug abuse while reviewing its narcotic drug management act on the same day.

yjc@docdocdoc.co.kr

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