The Seoul High Court's family division held the first hearing in the remand trial at 10 a.m. Wednesday and wrapped up the session about an hour later after hearing positions from both sides.
The court said it would hold another mediation session at the earliest possible date when both parties can attend.
Roh dressed in black appeared in person alongside her legal team, while Chey was represented only by attorneys.
Speaking briefly to reporters before entering the courthouse, Roh declined to answer questions on whether the recent surge in SK Group shares should be reflected in the property division or whether negotiations had made progress.
In October last year, the Supreme Court upheld the couple's divorce and a separate 2 billion won ($1.4 million) alimony award, while sending the property division portion of the case back to the Seoul High Court for reconsideration.
The remand trial is now focused solely on recalculating how much of Chey's assets should be shared with Roh.
If mediation fails, the court is expected to issue a new ruling based on the Supreme Court’s guidance regarding the valuation of Chey's holdings and Roh's contribution to the accumulation of family wealth.
The case has drawn intense public attention not only because of the massive scale of wealth involved, but also because it could set a major legal precedent for how South Korean courts recognize a spouse's indirect contribution to the rise of family-controlled conglomerates and inherited corporate wealth.
Roh is the daughter of late former President Roh Tae-woo, who governed South Korea from 1988 to 1993 during a key period of the country's industrial expansion. She married Chey in 1988, before SK Group transformed into one of Asia's largest semiconductor and telecommunications conglomerates.
Their marriage publicly unraveled in 2015 after Chey disclosed he had fathered a child outside the marriage and sought a divorce. Formal legal proceedings began in 2017 after earlier mediation attempts collapsed.
In the first trial in 2022, a family court ordered Chey to pay Roh 66.5 billion won in property division and 100 million won in alimony, ruling that much of Chey's SK holdings could not broadly be considered jointly accumulated marital assets.
But an appellate court sharply increased the amount in 2024, awarding Roh roughly 1.38 trillion won and 2 billion won in alimony after determining that Roh had contributed to the growth of SK Group and the appreciation in value of Chey's shares.
The appellate court also acknowledged Roh's role in child-rearing, household management and public-facing responsibilities as the spouse of a chaebol chairman.
However, the Supreme Court later ruled that 30 billion won in funds linked to former President Roh Tae-woo constituted illegal slush funds and therefore could not be counted as Roh's contribution to the formation of SK Group's wealth, sending the case back for another review.
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