South Korea

Court Awards Ex-Wife $644 Million in SK Group Chair's Divorce

Is SK Group's divorce scandal a deserved reckoning for Chey Tae-won or the catalyst South Korea needs to fix its system?

Published JUL 24

Court Awards Ex-Wife $644 Million in SK Group Chair's Divorce

Story

Above: SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York on July 10. Image credit: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Facts

South Korea's Seoul High Court ordered SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to pay his former wife, Roh Soh-yeong, 944 billion won ($644 million) in a property settlement on Friday, the largest divorce payout in the country's history.
The Chosun Daily
BBC News
Nevertheless, the ruling is lower than the 1.38 trillion won that a court originally ordered Chey to pay in 2024. The Supreme Court of Korea, however, later overturned that decision, sending the case back to the High Court for review.
Forbes
TRT World
The court subsequently ruled that Roh was entitled to one-third of the couple's joint assets, finding that her homemaking, child-rearing and support for SK Group's public-facing activities contributed to the growth of Chey's shareholdings during their marriage.
CNN
Nikkei Asia
The Supreme Court had previously ruled that a 30 billion won fund linked to Roh's father, former President Roh Tae-woo, could not be counted as her contribution to the couple's assets, as the money was regarded as illegally sourced.
Yonhap News Agency
The Korea Times
Following Friday's ruling, shares in SK Inc. — the conglomerate's holding company — fell 3.82%, while SK Hynix's underlying South Korea-listed shares dropped 8.34%. Chey currently holds a 17.9% stake in SK Inc., making him its largest shareholder.
Khan
Reuters
BigGo Finance
Divorce proceedings between the pair began in 2017 after Chey publicly disclosed an extramarital affair in a three-page letter to a South Korean newspaper in 2015, and that it had produced a child. The two married at the Blue House in 1988 and have three children.
Fortune
The Wall Street Journal
New York Post

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

The Seoul High Court's ruling against SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won is a deserved reckoning for a man who showed zero remorse for adultery, spent billions on a mistress while married and dismissed Korean domestic law. However, this case must not be allowed to damage the SK Group's fortunes. The company is a cornerstone of the South Korean economy; it's far too important for a civil trial to disrupt.

Korea JoongAng Daily

Narrative B

This divorce exposes something bigger than one billionaire's bad marriage. It cracks open Korea's chaebol system, where families hide wealth through holding companies and keep stock prices cheap to dodge taxes. A hostile takeover threat is now real, and that pressure may finally force the corporate governance reform that politicians have failed to deliver. The drama, it turns out, might fix the Korea Discount.