SEOUL, Oct. 18 (Yonhap) -- Smokers who are caught lighting up in Seoul's major city parks will be fined 100,000 won (US$93) from December when a stricter anti-tobacco rule goes into effect, the municipal government said Tuesday.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government last month revised a city ordinance that designates 20 city-operated parks as non-smoking zones as part of efforts to heighten public awareness of the health hazards from secondhand smoke.

The new rule will go into effect after a three-month grace period, officials said.

The move comes after the city government implemented a smoking ban in major public squares in the downtown capital in June.

Excluding two ecological parks and three smaller parks located near large roads, the city government will set up 34 smoking sections inside the other 15 parks to allow visitors to smoke in designated areas, they said.

"Unlike public squares, parks have large areas and visitors stay longer," a city official said. "The city will establish smoking zones in major parks, considering that designating the whole area of city parks as non-smoking zones excessively infringes upon smokers' rights."