Mediation Fails for Chey Tae-won and Roh Soh-yeong's 'Asset Division of the Century'... Trial to Resume on June 26

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Roh Soh-yeong, director of Art Center Nabi, have failed to reach an agreement on their asset division mediation, continuing their legal battle.

The Seoul High Court's Family Division 1 (presided over by Senior Judge Lee Sang-ju) declared the mediation unsuccessful this afternoon (June 15), immediately after concluding the second mediation session of the remand trial for their property division.

This comes about two months after the court referred the case to mediation on April 17.

The court has scheduled the formal trial hearing for June 26.

Both sides are expected to engage in a fierce courtroom battle once again through the trial proceedings.

The court previously held the first hearing of the remand trial on January 9 before referring the case to mediation three months later.

Since then, two mediation sessions were held—one on May 13 and another today—to seek an agreement, but the two sides ultimately failed to narrow their differences.

Today's second mediation session began at 2 p.m. and ended around 3:30 p.m., lasting about 90 minutes.

With both Chey and Roh in attendance, they faced each other in court for the first time in about two years and two months, since the final hearing of their divorce suit's appeal trial in April 2024.

Arriving at the court at 1:47 p.m., Chey was asked by reporters about his feelings on facing Roh in court for the first time in over two years. He replied, "I hope a mediation can be successfully reached so that this can end quickly."

Roh, who arrived earlier at 1:39 p.m., entered the courtroom without answering questions such as "Do you think an agreement is possible today?" and "Is there a compromise you can make during the mediation process?"

Both left the court without making any further statements after the mediation session ended.

The two sides are expected to clash sharply over the scale, method, and criteria of the asset division moving forward.

In particular, they hold opposing views on whether the SK shares held by Chey should be subject to division.

Chey's side maintains that the SK shares are "separate property" acquired through inheritance and gifts, and are therefore not subject to division.

Roh's side argues that the shares should be considered joint property subject to division, as she supported his management by taking full charge of domestic duties, including raising their children.

A dispute over the reference point for the asset division is also expected.

This is because the valuation of the assets could differ by more than threefold depending on whether the reference point is set as April 16, 2024—the date the pleadings were concluded in the appellate court (the court of fact-finding)—or the date the pleadings conclude in the ongoing remand trial.

As of April 2024, when the appellate court's pleadings concluded, SK's stock price was 160,000 won, putting the value of Chey's SK shares at around 2.07 trillion won.

However, with SK's stock price recently surging to around 600,000 won, the value has jumped significantly.

Chey and Roh, who married in September 1988 and have three children, have been locked in a grueling legal battle since Chey first filed for divorce mediation in 2017.

In December 2022, the first-instance court ruled that Chey must pay Roh 100 million won in alimony and 66.5 billion won in cash for property division.

However, in May 2024, the appellate court ordered Chey to pay 2 billion won in alimony and 1.3808 trillion won in property division.

This overturned the first-instance court's ruling that Chey's shares in SK Inc. were not subject to division, increasing the division amount by 20 times (from 66.5 billion won to 1.38 trillion won).

The appellate court ruled that the late former President Roh Tae-woo's "30 billion won slush fund" and Roh's contributions had played a role in the growth of SK Group.

However, in October last year, the Supreme Court remanded the case to the Seoul High Court for a retrial, ruling that because former President Roh's slush fund was illegal money, it could not be considered as a contribution by Roh to the asset division even if the funds had flowed into SK.

Albeit, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal regarding the 2 billion won in alimony, finalizing that portion of the ruling.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.