Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
Top court to hand down ruling on divorce case of SK chairman on Oct. 16
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, left, and his wife Roh Soh-yeong / Yonhap
By Nam Hyun-woo
The Supreme Court will hand down its ruling on property division in the divorce between SK Chairman Chey Tae-won and his estranged wife Roh Soh-yeong on Oct. 16. Viewed as one of the most high-profile divorce cases in recent Korean history, the ruling will affect Chey’s ownership of SK Group and could fundamentally change the shareholding structure of Korea’s second-largest conglomerate.
According to legal officials, Friday, the Supreme Court will hand down the verdict at 10 a.m. on that day. The ruling will come 15 months after the top court began reviewing the case and seven years after the two began their legal battle over the division of property.
The key issue in the trial is whether Chey’s SK Group shares will be included in the property division. If they are deemed “special property” inherited or gifted from his late father, former SK Chairman Chey Jong-hyun, they will be excluded.
SK Group argues that the shares were purchased with funds gifted by the late chairman and thus constitute special property, while Roh’s side argues they should be regarded as joint marital assets because her father’s slush funds contributed to her husband’s asset accumulation. Roh is a daughter of former president Roh Tae-woo.
In May 2024, the Seoul High Court ordered Chey to pay 1.38 trillion won ($970.26 million) to Roh, after estimating the couple’s marital assets at 4 trillion won. The amount was about 20 times higher than the 66.5 billion won previously ordered by a lower court, which had ruled that Chey’s SK shares were special property.