Anchor: Health authorities have recommended that people should avoid drinking, even in the smallest amounts, to prevent cancer, which is the number one cause of death in South Korea. The call came on Monday, which marked National Cancer Prevention Day. 
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.
 
Report: Government data has shown that as of 2013, about three out of four South Korean male adults and nearly half of South Korean female adults drink more than once a month.

It is usually thought that consuming a glass or two of alcohol now and then would cause no health problems.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare has issued a fresh warning against such a view.
 
During a ceremony marking the nation’s ninth Cancer Prevention Day on Monday, the ministry revealed changes to its guidelines on preventing cancer from saying it was okay for people to "drink no more than two glasses of alcohol a day" to "not drink at all."
 
The ministry cited the results of various studies carried out both at home and abroad in making the latest change.
 
Such studies found that drinking even one glass of alcohol a day sharply raises the risk of getting cancer in the mouth or in the esophagus.
 
One study found that a woman who drinks three to six glasses of alcohol a week has a 15 percent higher risk of getting breast cancer.
 
Professor Lim Min-kyung at the National Cancer Center's Division of Cancer Control and Epidemiology said that it has been publicly known that alcohol is clearly a carcinogen for humans. Lim added that in order to prevent getting cancer, it is better not to drink even one glass of alcohol.
 
The European Union changed its stance on drinking two years ago from regarding one glass a day as acceptable to not acceptable at all. Canadian health authorities also advocated no drinking for cancer prevention this year.

According to data, more than three-thousand are estimated to have gotten cancer due to drinking in a year and more than one-thousand died from cancer caused by drinking.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.