“Century’s Biggest Divorce Battle in Korea: SK Conglomerate’s Chairman Chey Tae-won and Noh So-young, Daughter of Ex-President”

In a landmark ruling in South Korea, the chairman of SK Group, Chey Tae-won (63), has been ordered by an appellate court to pay over 1.3 trillion won in a property division settlement to his ex-wife, Roh Soh-yeong (63), director of Art Center Nabi.

This is a significant increase from the 1 billion won in alimony and 66.5 billion won in property division recognized by the first trial in December 2022. In particular, the property division is the largest ever known in Korean history.

On the 30th (Korean time), the Seoul High Court’s Family Division 2 (Presiding Judge Kim Si-cheol, Kim Ok-gon, Lee Dong-hyun) ruled in the divorce lawsuit between Chairman Chey and Director Roh, “The plaintiff (Chairman Chey) should pay the defendant (Director Roh) 2 billion won in alimony and 1.38 trillion won in property division.”

The court stated, “After separating from Director Roh, Chairman Chey maintained a relationship with Kim Hee-young, director of the TNC Foundation, and spent more than 21.9 billion won on calculable parts alone and provided economic benefits that could not be calculated.” The court also judged that “the amount of alimony calculated for the mental pain of marriage breakdown is too small.”

Furthermore, the court stated, “Director Roh should be seen as contributing to the increase in value or management activities of SK Group” and “All of Chairman Chey’s property is subject to division.” The court overturned the first trial’s judgment that the SK Corporation shares held by Chairman Chey were not subject to division.

The court also added, “Former President Roh Tae-woo played the role of a shield or shield for former Chairman Chey Jong-hyun, and ultimately provided intangible help to (SK Group’s) successful management activities.”

The court, which estimated the total assets of the two at about 4 trillion won, based on this judgment, set the property division ratio to 65% for Chairman Chey and 35% for Director Roh.

The court ordered Chairman Chey to pay Director Roh the property division amount exceeding 1 trillion won in cash.

The court criticized Chairman Chey, saying, “Even though the marital relationship has not been resolved, he has suspended his credit card since February 2019 and stopped providing cash living expenses after the first trial.” “He is not showing any sincere remorse for misconduct during the lawsuit and is not respecting the partial settlement at all.”

The two married in September 1988 and had three children, but they separated in 2015.

At the time, Chairman Chey announced his intention to divorce, revealing the existence of an illegitimate child born between him and Kim Hee-young, director of the TNC Foundation, saying, “I have been living with a deep gap with Director Roh for over 10 years.”

In July 2017, he applied for divorce mediation and entered into formal legal proceedings, but it turned into a lawsuit in February 2018 as he failed to reach an agreement.

Director Roh, who insisted that she could not divorce, changed her position to divorce in December 2019 and filed a countersuit.

The wedding of the daughter of former President Roh Tae-woo and the son of the chaebol SK, which attracted people’s attention as the wedding of the century, is creating the biggest divorce drama in Korea due to Chairman Chey’s infidelity and divorce request.

Director Roh demanded that instead of divorcing, she be paid 300 million won in alimony and 50% of the SK Corporation shares held by Chairman Chey.

The first trial court ruled that the SK shares held by Chairman Chey were ‘special property’ originating from the SK Group shares donated/inherited from his father, former Chairman Chey Jong-hyun, and were not subject to property division.

Then, Director Roh’s side changed the property division target from ‘stock’ to ‘cash 2 trillion won’ during the appellate trial process, and also raised the requested alimony to 3 billion won.

In addition, she claimed that about 34.3 billion won of the ‘slush fund’ of former President Roh Tae-woo in the 1990s was transferred to former Chairman Chey Jong-hyun and Chairman Chey, and was used for the acquisition of a securities company in 1992 and the purchase of SK shares in 1994.

On the other hand, Chairman Chey’s side refuted that there was no inflow of slush funds into the SK Group, and this was confirmed even during the investigation of former President Roh’s slush fund in 1995.

In addition, Director Roh’s side claimed that the halo of ‘the son-in-law of the former president’ greatly contributed to Chairman Chey’s rise to the group’s chairman, but Chairman Chey’s side refuted that he rather suffered disadvantages as a ‘presidential son-in-law company’.