A court has rejected South Korea's first anti-tobacco lawsuits filed by cancer victims and relatives against tobacco firm Korea Tobacco and Ginseng Co (KT&G), saying there is no evidence the disease was caused by smoking the firm's cigarettes.

“Although there is pathological correlation between their smoking and the diseases…there is no evidence to acknowledge that the lung and larynx cancer of the complainants were caused by smoking the cigarettes sold by the defendant,” Yonhap news agency quoted the court ruling as saying.
The two lawsuits were filed in December 1999 against KT&G, which was then a state-owned firm.
A total of 36 people including cancer patients and their relatives brought the suits. (pi)