Volunteers sit next to a huge rainbow flag before a parade as a part of the 23rd Seoul Queer Culture Festival which is held from July 15 to July 31, in Seoul, South Korea, July 16, 2022. (PHOTO / AP)

SEOUL - A South Korean court on Tuesday recognized spousal coverage of state health insurance for a same-sex couple in a landmark verdict, overturning a lower court's ruling that said the union cannot be considered a common law couple under current law, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

The Seoul High Court's ruling is the court's "first recognition of the legal status of a same-sex couple," lawyer Park Han-hee, who represented the plaintiff, said, according to Yonhap.

South Korea does not legally recognize same-sex marriage.

The plaintiff, So Sung-wook, filed a suit against the National Health Insurance Service in 2021 after the state health insurer denied his rights to receive spousal coverage despite granting such rights to other common law couples.

The Seoul High Court said the spousal coverage system under the state health insurance scheme is not just for families as defined by law, and not granting the rights to same-sex couples was discrimination, Yonhap reported

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A lower court had said a same-sex union cannot be considered a common law marriage under current law and ruled in favor of the insurer.

But the appellate court said the spousal coverage system under the state health insurance scheme is not just for families as defined by law, and not granting the rights to same-sex couples was discrimination, Yonhap reported.

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Protecting the rights of minorities is the "biggest responsibility" of the court as the "last bastion" of human rights, the court added.

"We are glad this judiciary judgment reveals what kind of discrimination so many sexual minorities have been facing until now," So told reporters after the ruling.

Telephone calls by Reuters to the National Health Insurance Service seeking comment went unanswered.