![Chey Tae-won and Noh So-young attend a divorce hearing at Seoul High Court on April 16, 2024. [Yonhap]](https://image.ajunews.com/content/image/2025/10/16/20251016061128232510.jpg)
SEOUL, October 16 (AJP) - The Supreme Court of Korea is set to deliver its final ruling on Thursday for a high-profile divorce case between SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won and his estranged wife Roh Soh-yeong.
The court will decide whether to uphold or overturn the previous ruling that ordered Chey to pay Roh 1.38 trillion won (approximately US$970 million) in asset divisions and 20 billion won in alimony, making it the most expensive divorce case in the country's history.
The final verdict comes after the Seoul High Court overturned the initial ruling in May last year, siding with Roh and deeming the previous settlement set by the lower court insufficient.
In the first trial in December 2022, Roh sought 50 percent of Chey's shares in SK Holdings, the conglomerate's parent company, but the court upheld Chey's argument that she had not contributed to his acquisition of the shares, which he inherited from his father.
The key issue in the case is whether Chey's SK shares, acquired prior to the marriage, should be considered personal property and excluded from their asset divisions.
Another point of contention is whether 30 billion won of slush funds from Roh's father, the late former President Roh Tae-woo, were funneled into SK Group. The court found evidence suggesting the funds contributed to the company's transformation into the conglomerate it is today, though Chey's side argues the shares were acquired independently.
Chey is the chief of the country's second-largest conglomerate after Samsung. The couple married in September 1988 and have three children between them. In December 2015, Chey revealed that he had a child out of wedlock and later filed for divorce in July 2017 as the two failed to agree on the terms of separation.
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