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South Korean court orders SK Hynix billionaire Chey Tae-won to pay ex-wife 944 billion won

South Korean court orders SK Hynix billionaire Chey Tae-won to pay ex-wife 944 billion won

A Seoul High Court ruling lowered the settlement from last year’s 1.38 trillion won order after the Supreme Court sent the case back for review in the closely watched divorce dispute.

Fact Check
Multiple authoritative sources confirm every element of the claim. Yonhap's July 24, 2026 same-day article and the Korea Herald and Bloomberg both state the Seoul High Court's ruling is scheduled for July 24, 2026. The Supreme Court overturned the May 2024 award of 1.38 trillion won in October 2025 and remanded the asset-division portion over calculation/valuation and slush-fund issues, matching the described 'calculation issues in the asset division.' The WSJ corroborates the roughly $5 billion asset figure and the Friday appeals-court decision.
Summary

A Seoul High Court ordered SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to pay 944 billion won, or about $640 million, to his former wife Roh So-yeong in a divorce case South Korean media have dubbed the “divorce of the century.” The ruling came months after the Supreme Court sent the case back for further review, and reduced the asset award from the high court’s previous 1.38 trillion won order. Chey had also previously been ordered to pay 2 billion won, or about $1.3 million, in alimony. The earlier high court ruling had partly relied on a finding that Roh’s father, former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo, provided SK with 30 billion won in alleged slush funds during his presidency, but the Supreme Court said those funds could not be recognized as a legal contribution to the company’s growth. Chey and Roh married in 1988 and have three children. Chey filed for divorce in 2017 after disclosing a relationship with another woman and a child with her. The case may return to the Supreme Court if either side appeals.

Terms & Concepts
  • alimony: Court-ordered financial support paid by one former spouse to the other after divorce.
  • asset award: The amount of money or property a court orders one party to transfer in a legal settlement.
  • slush funds: Money held or used outside formal accounting or legal channels, often for improper purposes.