The 944 billion won in property division that SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has been ordered to pay to Art Center Nabi Director Roh Soh-yeong is evaluated as the largest publicly disclosed property division amount ever set in a South Korean chaebol divorce lawsuit.

According to the legal community today (July 26), the only larger property division amount previously calculated in a publicly known chaebol divorce ruling was in May 2024, during the appellate trial prior to the remand of Chairman Chey and Director Roh's case.

At that time, the 2nd Family Division of the Seoul High Court ordered Chairman Chey to pay 1.3808 trillion won. However, that ruling was subsequently remanded by the Supreme Court on the grounds that the 30 billion won slush fund involving former President Roh Tae-woo should not be recognized as a contribution from Director Roh's side, leading to the remanded appellate ruling on the 24th, which adjusted the amount to 944 billion won.

The decisive factor in calculating these record-high amounts in both the appellate and remanded appellate courts was their determination that SK shares held by Chairman Chey were subject to division.

The property division ratio recognized for Director Roh stands at 33.3%, which is also evaluated as unusually high among past chaebol divorce cases.

Working backward, the joint marital property subject to division amounts to approximately 2.9 trillion won.

The court recognized that over the 30 years from 1988, when the two married, until 2017, when their marriage officially broke down after Chairman Chey filed for a divorce mediation, Director Roh contributed to the growth of the assets through household chores, child-rearing, and external activities related to SK Group management.

Under tax law, property division following a divorce does not incur gift tax for the recipient.

As the court decided on a cash-based property division, if the assets are divided as is without Chairman Chey's side filing a final appeal, Director Roh is expected to rank among South Korea's top female billionaires.


Attention is also focusing on the divorce lawsuit of Smilegate Chief Vision Officer (CVO) and Hope Studio Chairman Kwon Hyuk-bin, whose assets are known to be around 8 trillion won.

The first-instance ruling for Chairman Kwon's divorce lawsuit, which was filed in November 2022, will be delivered on September 9 this year, about four years later.

Chairman Kwon's spouse, surnamed Lee, has reportedly requested a 50% split of Smilegate shares.

In the past, the divorce of Hotel Shilla President Lee Boo-jin and Lim Woo-jae, former executive advisor at Samsung Electro-Mechanics, also drew attention for the scale of property division.

The two, who married in August 1999, hit a rocky patch in October 2014 when President Lee filed for divorce mediation.

During the lawsuit, former Advisor Lim claimed that President Lee's total assets amounted to around 2.5 trillion won and demanded a property division of about 1.2 trillion won, roughly half. However, in January 2020, the Supreme Court finalized the second-instance ruling which set the property division amount to be paid by President Lee at approximately 14.1 billion won.

Comparing the claimed amount to the final result, it was evaluated as effectively a defeat for former Advisor Lim.

Although specific reasons for the ruling were not made public, analyses suggested that the court determined President Lee's held shares were not subject to division.

Cho Hyun-ah, former vice president of Korean Air (who later changed her name to Cho Seung-yeon), paid a much smaller property division of 1.33 billion won in her divorce from plastic surgeon Park.

The two married in 2010 and had twin children, but their marriage broke down in April 2018 when Dr. Park filed for divorce citing verbal abuse and physical assault by former Vice President Cho.

In response, former Vice President Cho filed a countersuit in June of the following year, claiming that married life had become difficult due to Dr. Park's alcohol addiction.

In November 2022, the first-instance court ruled that former Vice President Cho should pay 1.33 billion won and that Dr. Park should pay 1.2 million won per month in child support for each child. As neither side appealed, the ruling was finalized as is.

Hanjin Group shares held by former Vice President Cho were not included in the subjects of division.

Meanwhile, NCSoft CEO Kim Tak-jin gifted a 1.76% stake in the company as part of a property division when he divorced in 2004.

At the stock price at the time, it was worth around 30 billion won.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Daesung Group Vice Chairwoman Im Se-ryung divorced in 2009 after 11 years of marriage. Although Vice Chairwoman Im filed for a divorce lawsuit, a settlement was reached within a week, keeping the scale of the property division undisclosed.

The divorce of Shinsegae Group Chairman Jung Yong-jin and actor Go Hyun-jung was also finalized in November 2003, with an agreement reached between the two sides just two hours after Go applied for divorce mediation.

It was reported that Chairman Jung agreed to pay Go 1.5 billion won in alimony while taking child custody, and the scale of the property division was not made public.