A South Korean court on Friday handed down a landmark ruling in what national media have called the “divorce of the century,” ordering SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to pay his former wife 944 billion won — the equivalent of approximately $640 million.
The Seoul High Court issued the decision in the long-running divorce case between Chey and Roh So-yeong, the daughter of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo. The ruling came after the country’s Supreme Court had sent the case back to the appellate court for further consideration.
Roh, who serves as the director of an art museum in Seoul, will receive less than the 1.38 trillion won — about $940 million — that the high court had previously awarded her. Chey had also been ordered separately to pay 2 billion won, or roughly $1.3 million, in alimony.
The value of Chey’s holdings has grown in recent months, driven in part by a surge in shares of SK Hynix, the semiconductor arm of SK Group, as demand tied to the global artificial intelligence boom has pushed the company’s stock higher.
An earlier ruling by the high court had taken into account a finding that Roh’s father allegedly funneled 30 billion won — around $20.4 million — in slush funds to SK during his time as president. The Supreme Court, however, determined those funds could not legally be counted as a contribution to the company’s development.
Chey and Roh were married in 1988 and share three children together. Chey initiated divorce proceedings in 2017 after publicly acknowledging he had been in a relationship with another woman and had fathered a child with her. Roh was not present in court for Friday’s ruling.
Either party may appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Chey is currently among a group of South Korean business leaders accompanying President Lee Jae Myung on a trip to the United States. The president is expected to meet with tech industry figures including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang in San Francisco on Friday, with the goal of encouraging investment in South Korean artificial intelligence and semiconductor efforts.
