Divorce of the Century: Court Orders SK Chairman to Pay Ex-Wife $644 Million

A court in South Korea has ordered the chairman of the giant corporation SK to pay 944 billion won (644 million dollars) to his ex-wife, in what local media is calling the "divorce of the century." This amount is lower than the 1.38 trillion won (nearly 946 million dollars) that Chey Tae-won was ordered to pay his ex-wife, Roh Soh-yeong, according to a 2024 ruling.

The decision comes more than a decade after his marriage to Roh — the daughter of the country's former president — fell apart due to the discovery that the chairman had fathered a child outside of the marriage. The SK Group owns SK Hynix, a giant chip manufacturer and supplier to Nvidia, which recently held a record-breaking IPO in the US.

Chey's lawyers stated:

«Chey is very sorry that the proceedings have caused concern to many people so far. We will release our response to the verdict immediately after we have studied it in depth.»

The court's decision follows a complex discussion on the division of assets between Chey and Roh, who were married for 35 years. In the previous trial in 2024, it was claimed that Chey received significant help from his ex-wife's father, Roh Tae-woo, who served as the country's president from 1988 to 1993. The court ruled at the time that Chey had received 30 billion won from his former father-in-law's secret fund in 1991, and ordered him to pay 1.38 trillion won.

However, the Supreme Court overturned that ruling last year, determining that since the transfer of the fund's money was illegal, it should not be calculated as part of the assets held by the couple. The high-profile divorce proceedings have captivated South Korea. SK was founded in 1953 as a textile company, but grew rapidly and expanded into other industries, eventually becoming one of the largest conglomerates in South Korea.