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The Seoul High Court ruling requires SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won to transfer 944 billion won to Roh Soh-yeong, according to the Korea Herald, which described the decision as cutting the prior award by nearly a third. The verdict follows the Supreme Court’s October 2025 decision to overturn a 1.38 trillion won payout after determining that 30 billion won from Roh’s father, former President Roh Tae-woo, constituted illegal funds that could not factor into marital assets. Chey and Roh, who married in 1988 and have three children, saw their 35-year union dissolve publicly in 2015 after he acknowledged fathering a child with another woman, a development that has kept the proceedings in the spotlight for years.
Chey’s legal team stated that the chairman is deeply sorry the divorce proceedings so far have caused concern to many people and that they will share a specific response after closely reviewing the ruling. The Korea JoongAng Daily reported that the couple failed to reach a mediated settlement in June 2026, with core disagreements centering on whether Chey’s shares in SK Inc. count as marital property acquired during the marriage or as separate assets inherited or gifted. Roh’s side had argued her contributions to household management and child-rearing supported Chey’s business activities, a position that initially expanded the award in the 2024 appellate decision before the higher court intervention.
SK Group ranks as South Korea’s second-largest chaebol after Samsung, according to Reuters, having expanded from a 1953 textile operation into semiconductors, telecommunications, energy and logistics that touch daily life through SK Telecom services and SK gas stations. The conglomerate’s prominence has intensified with subsidiary SK Hynix, which Reuters data shows saw shares rise more than 200 percent in 2026 on AI-driven demand for high-bandwidth memory chips supplied to Nvidia. CNBC reporting placed SK Hynix and Samsung together as representing more than 40 percent of the benchmark Kospi index, highlighting the sector’s outsized role in national market performance.
SK Hynix achieved a $1 trillion market capitalization in May 2026 amid the global artificial intelligence surge, a milestone CNBC noted followed Samsung in making South Korea the first country outside the United States with multiple trillion-dollar companies. The chipmaker later raised $26.5 billion through a New York listing that The Guardian identified as the largest ever by a foreign firm in the United States, while company figures show 2025 revenue neared $65 billion with profits doubling to around $28 billion. These gains have elevated Chey’s status, with President Lee Jae-myung last month praising him alongside Samsung’s chairman as a hero of the Korean people during an AI investment announcement.
The case has drawn sustained attention across South Korea, where chaebol divorces often intersect with questions of corporate governance and family control, according to analysis in the Korea Times. Yonhap News Agency tracked how Chey’s 17.9 percent stake in SK Inc. has risen sharply in value since earlier hearings, complicating calculations that now exclude the contested slush fund while using updated share prices. The latest award, which still requires finalisation, includes confirmation of a separate 2 billion won alimony payment upheld through the appeals process.
Court records indicate the original 2022 trial court had set the property division at 66.5 billion won before the 2024 increase that incorporated Roh’s claimed contributions tied to her father’s political era from 1988 to 1993. UPI reporting detailed how the Supreme Court remand returned the matter to mediation and then oral arguments, with both sides remaining far apart on asset classification. SK Inc. shares reacted variably to prior rulings, dipping after the 2025 Supreme Court decision as uncertainty extended.
