SEOUL, August 15 (AJP) —South Korea's biggest divorce settlement is heading back to the Supreme Court, giving SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won more time to raise the 944 billion won ($669 million) in cash he has been ordered to pay his former wife while deferring immediate pressure on his corporate holdings.
Chey filed another appeal Friday against the Seoul High Court's property-division ruling in his divorce from Roh Soh-yeong, director of Art Center Nabi, extending a legal battle that began in 2017 and delaying the point at which the record settlement becomes final.
The appeal also holds off the 5 percent annual statutory interest that would begin accruing once the judgment becomes final and remains unpaid — about 47.2 billion won a year, or roughly 129 million won a day on the full award.
For Chey and SK, the extra time matters. The court ordered the settlement to be paid in cash, allowing him to retain the SK Inc. shares underpinning his influence over the conglomerate, but leaving him to find nearly 1 trillion won without weakening that control.
From presidential family to corporate dynasty
Chey and Roh married at the presidential Blue House in September 1988, during the first year in office of Roh's father, Roh Tae-woo.
The marriage joined one of South Korea's leading corporate families with its presidential household and lasted through decades of SK Group's expansion, financial crises and changes in the conglomerate's ownership structure.
It publicly unraveled in 2015, when Chey disclosed in a three-page letter that he had fathered a daughter with another woman and said he no longer believed the marriage could be saved.
Chey sought divorce mediation in 2017. After that failed, the case moved to court, and Roh filed a countersuit in 2019 seeking 300 million won in damages and about 6.48 million SK shares as part of the property division.
The first ruling went overwhelmingly in Chey's favor. In December 2022, the Seoul Family Court ordered him to pay Roh 66.5 billion won in property division and 100 million won in damages, concluding that his SK shares were separate property rather than assets jointly accumulated during the marriage.
Roh appealed, calling the award "a denial of women's commitment to the household."
In May 2024, the Seoul High Court raised the property award to about 1.38 trillion won and damages to 2 billion won, finding that Roh had contributed to the formation, maintenance and growth of the marital estate, including Chey's SK Inc. holdings.
At the heart of that decision was 30 billion won linked to former President Roh Tae-woo.
Roh's lawyers presented a handwritten note preserved by her mother that included Sunkyong — SK's former name — alongside "30 billion won," arguing that the money had flowed to Chey's family and helped expand the conglomerate. Chey's side denied that SK received such support.
The Supreme Court overturned the property-division portion of the ruling last October, finding that even if the money had been transferred, funds derived from illegal activity could not be recognized as Roh's legally protected contribution to the marital estate. The court left the divorce and 2 billion won damages award intact.
On remand, the Seoul High Court excluded the disputed 30 billion won but again ruled that Chey's SK Inc. shares were subject to division, rejecting his argument that they constituted separate property acquired through inheritance or gifts.
The court awarded Roh one-third of the couple's property and Chey two-thirds, producing the 944 billion won cash award — still more than 14 times the 66.5 billion won awarded at the first trial.
The case has unfolded alongside a dramatic rise in the value of Chey's corporate holdings.
SK hynix has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the global artificial-intelligence investment boom through its high-bandwidth memory chips used alongside AI processors, increasing investor attention on Chey's stake in SK Inc., the holding company through which he exercises influence over the group.
The remand court kept April 16, 2024 — when arguments in the earlier appellate proceeding ended — as the valuation date for Chey's SK Inc. shares, setting their value at 160,000 won each. It rejected Roh's argument that the shares should instead be valued at the end of the remand proceedings, when the stock was trading above 800,000 won.
The court nevertheless took the subsequent rise in share prices into consideration when setting Roh's share of the marital estate at one-third. Chey was allowed to retain his SK shares and satisfy the award in cash, avoiding a direct transfer of stock that could affect his grip on the conglomerate.
That still leaves the question of how Chey would finance a payment approaching 1 trillion won if the award survives the second Supreme Court review.
His marriage to Roh is legally over. The price of ending it is now back before the Supreme Court.
AJP Takeaways:
- Chey appealed the 944 billion won property-division award, sending the financial portion of his divorce case back to the Supreme Court after nine years of litigation.
- The divorce itself is already final. Only the division of marital assets remains contested; a separate 2 billion won damages award has also been finalized.
- Corporate-control concerns remain central: The cash award allows Chey to retain his SK Inc. shares, but financing the payment could still draw scrutiny because those holdings underpin his influence over SK Group.
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