▲ These file images show SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won (L) and Roh Soh-yeong appearing for a hearing at the Seoul High Court in the capital city on April 16, 2024. (Yonhap)

SK Group chairman-divorce ruling

Top court set to rule on SK Group chairman's divorce case

By Chae Yun-hwan

SEOUL, Oct. 16 (Yonhap) -- The Supreme Court was set to make a ruling on a high-profile divorce case involving SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won on Thursday, more than eight years after the closely watched legal battle began, in what would be the nation's biggest divorce settlement.

The top court will deliver its decision at 10 a.m. on whether to uphold an appellate court's ruling on the case or send it back to the lower court for review.

In May last year, the Seoul High Court ordered Chey, the chairman of South Korea's second-largest conglomerate, to pay 1.38 trillion won (US$971 million) in property division and 2 billion won in alimony to his estranged wife, Roh Soh-yeong.

Chey and Roh, former President Roh Tae-woo's only daughter, married in 1988 and have three children.

Chey announced a divorce plan in 2015, admitting to having an extramarital lover and a child with her, and filed for a divorce settlement two years later.

Roh raised a countersuit in 2019, demanding half of the SK shares owned by Chey in the property division.

In December 2022, the Seoul Family Court ordered Chey to pay 100 million won in alimony and 66.5 billion won in cash as part of the property division.

The appellate court, however, determined the couple's combined wealth to be 4 trillion won, with a division rate of 65 percent for Chey and 35 percent for Roh.

Chey then appealed the ruling, claiming errors in the calculation of Roh's contribution to the company's growth.

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