On Friday local time, SK Group stated in a regulatory filing that SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won will sell SK Inc. stocks worth 944 billion KRW to meet personal funding needs related to divorce property division.
Chey Tae-won, the largest shareholder of SK Inc., plans to sell 1.6539 million shares, accounting for 2.3% of the company's total shares. The sale amount matches the sum he was ordered to pay to his ex-wife, Roh So-young, by the Seoul High Court this July.
On July 24 this year, a South Korean court ordered Chey Tae-won to pay his ex-wife 944 billion KRW in divorce property division in a new round of rulings. This amount set a record for divorce property division in South Korea, but was lower than the 1.38 trillion KRW awarded by the same court in the second instance trial in 2024.
On September 9, the Seoul Family Court issued a first-instance ruling on the divorce case of Smilegate founder Kwon Hyuk-bin, with a division amount reaching 2.55 trillion KRW, breaking this record.
Back in 2015, Chey Tae-won admitted in a three-page open letter to the media that he had fallen in love with another woman and had a daughter with her, declaring the end of his 27-year marriage.
In his letter, he also quoted the opening line from Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina": "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Roh So-young initially refused to divorce, hoping to keep the family intact for their three children, but filed a countersuit in late 2019, demanding that Chey Tae-won divide half of his assets and pay compensation for mental distress.
In 2022, the court of first instance ruled that Chey Tae-won should pay approximately 66.5 billion KRW as property division. Roh So-young argued that this ruling denied women's contributions to marriage and family.
In 2024, the court of second instance significantly revised the judgment, ruling that Roh So-young could receive 35% of the couple's joint property, approximately 1.38 trillion KRW, plus 2 billion KRW in compensation for mental distress.
The Supreme Court of Korea remanded the case for retrial in October 2025.
Roh So-young hopes the appellate court will recalculate based on the latest valuation and award her a higher proportion of the wealth. Chey Tae-won countered that his ex-wife made no contribution to SK's recent rise and argued that judges should use earlier valuations as the basis for division, i.e., before the stock prices of his companies surged.