SK Group headquarters in Seoul (SK Inc.)
SK Group headquarters in Seoul (SK Inc.)

The Supreme Court will deliver its ruling next week in a high-profile divorce case involving SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, officials said Friday.

In July last year, Chey, the chairman of South Korea's second-largest conglomerate, appealed the ruling by an appellate court that ordered him to pay 1.38 trillion won (US$970.26 million) in property division and 2 billion won in solatium to his estranged wife, Roh Soh-yeong, in what has become the most expensive divorce lawsuit in the country's history.

The top court will hold a sentencing hearing next Thursday for the final appeal trial in the case, according to the officials.

Chey and Roh, the only daughter of late President Roh Tae-woo, married in 1988 and have three children together.

Chey announced plans to divorce in 2015, admitting he had an extramarital lover with whom he had a child. Two years later, he filed for a divorce settlement.

Roh raised a countersuit in 2019, demanding half of the SK shares owned by Chey in the property division.

In December 2022, the court ordered Chey to pay 1 billion won in alimony and 66.5 billion won in cash as part of the property division.

In May 2024, the appellate court, however, determined the couple's combined wealth to be 4 trillion won, with a division rate of 65 percent for Chey and 35 percent for Roh.

Chey then appealed the ruling, claiming errors in the calculation of Roh's contribution to the company's growth.

The appellate court corrected its calculation error but did not change its conclusion, saying the error does not affect the ratio and subject of the property division. (Yonhap)