SEOUL, South Korea – A South Korean court has ordered SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to pay his former wife, Roh Soh-yeong, 944 billion won ($644 million; approximately ₦987.6 billion) in one of the country’s most closely watched divorce cases.
Okay News reports that the latest ruling reduces an earlier award of 1.38 trillion won made in 2024, although the decision has yet to become final. The dispute stems from the collapse of the couple’s 35-year marriage after Chey admitted to fathering a child with another woman.
Roh Soh-yeong is the daughter of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo, who served between 1988 and 1993. During the original trial, her legal team argued that the late president had provided 30 billion won in financial support to Chey in 1991 through an illegal slush fund, helping lay the foundation for the family’s business empire.
However, the South Korean Supreme Court later ruled that the funds had been illegally obtained and could not be treated as marital assets, leading to the reduced financial award. Chey’s legal representatives said the chairman regrets the public attention surrounding the case and will decide on further action after reviewing the judgment.
SK Group, South Korea’s second-largest family-controlled conglomerate after Samsung, operates businesses across telecommunications, energy and semiconductors. Its chip subsidiary, SK Hynix, has become a major supplier to Nvidia and has benefited significantly from growing global demand for artificial intelligence technology, helping cement the group’s position among the country’s most influential corporations.
