SK Chey Tae-won and Noh So-young Divorce Lawsuit Concludes Today After 5 Years... Attention on Property Division Scale

Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group and Director Noh So-young of Art Center Nabi. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The divorce lawsuit results between SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Art Center Nabi Director Noh So-young will be announced on the 6th.

Director Noh has demanded that Chairman Chey pay her SK Inc. shares worth around 1 trillion won in addition to alimony, drawing attention to the scale of property division that the court will recognize.

The Family Agreement Division 2 of the Seoul Family Court (Chief Judge Kim Hyun-jung) will hold the first trial verdict hearing for the divorce lawsuit between Chairman Chey and Director Noh from 1:50 p.m. on the same day. It has been about five years since the two entered the divorce process.

Chairman Chey publicly announced in 2015 that he would divorce Director Noh after revealing the existence of an extramarital child.

Subsequently, in July 2017, he applied for divorce mediation at the court but failed to reach an agreement, leading to a breakdown, and in February 2018, formal litigation procedures began.

Director Noh, who opposed the divorce, filed a counterclaim against Chairman Chey in December 2019, demanding 300 million won in alimony and 42.29% (6.5 million shares) of SK Inc. shares held by Chairman Chey as property division. Based on the previous day's closing price, this amounts to approximately 1.37 trillion won.

Director Noh applied for a provisional injunction to prohibit the disposal of shares until the divorce and property division lawsuit against Chairman Chey is concluded, and in April, the court partially accepted Director Noh's application, prohibiting Chairman Chey from disposing of 3.5 million shares.

Chairman Chey's side argues that the shares in question originated from SK affiliate shares gifted or inherited from his late father, former Chairman Chey Jong-hyun, and therefore should be considered separate property.

Separate property refers to assets owned by one spouse before marriage or assets acquired in their name during the marriage, which are generally not subject to property division.

On the other hand, Director Noh's side is known to hold the position that in the case of couples married for a long time, assets gifted or inherited by a spouse should also be regarded as joint property.