From my stupid understanding of Korean customs and law, the judgement must’ve been like this:

Lawyer: “Your honor, my client, the tobacco companies, generate a revenue of 10 billion won and spend 5 on advertising. The NHIS can only ever spend 1 billion against us.” Judge: “Since you have more money, tobacco companies, you are more correct. NHIS, go get fucked for not being rich enough.”

The lower court said the NHIS’s payments to medical institutions were the fulfillment of its legal obligations under the National Health Insurance Act and the execution of funds collected or supported under that law — meaning the benefit payments were a duty, not a compensable loss.

It also held that the smokers themselves did not have valid claims for damages against the tobacco companies, citing difficulty in finding defects in the cigarettes and a lack of proof of individual causation between smoking and lung cancer.

But the court said epidemiological research has limits, noting that it does not, in fact, provide precise information about what caused a particular individual’s disease.

To be fair, the argument is scientifically valid, there are many things that increase the risk of cancer, so it’s hard to pinpoint “the cause”. HOWEVER, a judge deciding that “you can’t really prove it was the smoking that caused the cancer” sounds like someone “paying” for the “free gifts” he received from his tobacco friends.