A South Korean court ordered SK Group chairman Choi Tae-won to pay his ex-wife nearly $643 million in their divorce case

PANews July 24—According to Jiemian News, on July 24 the Seoul High Court in South Korea issued a ruling ordering SK Group chairman Choi Tae-won to pay his ex-wife, Ryu So-young, 944.0 billion KRW (about $643 million) in a divorce property division case. Both sides may still appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

According to reports, since Choi Tae-won filed for divorce mediation in 2017, the legal dispute between the two parties has continued to this day. In the first-instance court, in December 2022 it ordered Choi Tae-won to pay Ryu So-young 100 million KRW in damages for emotional distress and 66.5 billion KRW as a property division payment. In the second-instance court, in May 2024 it ordered Choi Tae-won to pay Ryu So-young 2 billion KRW in damages for emotional distress and to divide 1.3808 trillion KRW in property. The second-instance court found that Ryu So-young and her father, the late former president Roh Tae-woo, had provided financial support and made contributions to SK Group’s development and expansion. However, the Supreme Court made a different determination: last October it ruled to remand the property division portion back to the second-instance court, reiterating its decision, while also allowing the parties’ divorce. On January 9, the second-instance court held the first trial debate after the remand, and on April 17 transferred the case to mediation proceedings. But the two sides failed to narrow their differences on the core dispute, and the mediation ultimately fell through.