SK Chey Tae-won and Noh So-young's '1 Trillion Won' Asset Division and Divorce Lawsuit Begins Today

Dispute Over Director Noh's Contribution to Preservation and Growth of Assets

Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group (left) and Director Noh So-young of Art Center Nabi are attending the second mediation session of their divorce lawsuit at the Seoul Family Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on January 16 last year. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] The divorce lawsuit between SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won (60) and Noh So-young, director of Art Center Nabi (59), in which the division of assets worth over 1 trillion won has emerged as a new issue, will officially resume on the 7th.

The Family Division 2 of the Seoul Family Court (Presiding Judge Jeon Yeon-sook) will hold the first hearing of the divorce lawsuit between Chairman Chey and Director Noh at 4:30 p.m. that day. This is the first trial since Director Noh filed a counterclaim requesting asset division in December last year.

As it is the first hearing, the court is expected to listen to both parties' positions and discuss future procedures such as asset investigation.

Initially, Chairman Chey revealed in July 2017 that he had an extramarital child and expressed his intention to divorce, then applied for divorce mediation at the court.

However, the mediation ultimately failed in February 2018, and a formal trial proceeded at the Family Division 3 of the Seoul Family Court.

Since then, Director Noh, who had consistently opposed the divorce, filed a counterclaim in December last year requesting asset division, and the case was reassigned to a collegiate panel.

At that time, Director Noh demanded 300 million won in alimony as a condition for divorce, along with a division of 42.29% of SK Inc. shares held by Chairman Chey.

According to the year-end business report last year, Chairman Chey held 12.97 million shares (18.44%) of SK Inc. Converting 42.29% of these shares, which is 5.48 million shares, at the approximate pre-COVID-19 market price (250,000 won per share) amounts to about 1.37 trillion won.

In divorce cases, claims for division of property between spouses are regarded by precedent as having both a liquidative nature for jointly formed marital property through mutual cooperation during the marriage and a supportive nature toward the other party.

Property acquired before marriage by one spouse and property acquired during marriage under one's own name, i.e., separate property, is generally not subject to division. However, the Supreme Court's position is that even separate property can be subject to division if it is recognized that the other spouse actively cooperated in maintaining it to prevent reduction or contributed to its increase.

Therefore, from Chairman Chey's perspective, he is likely to emphasize that most of the shares were inherited from his late father, the late Chairman Chey Jong-hyun.

On the other hand, Director Noh is likely to focus on proving her significant contribution to maintaining and increasing such assets.

The Supreme Court holds the position that even if the property was formed based on assets inherited by the husband, it can be subject to division if the wife's domestic labor is recognized as contributing to the acquisition and maintenance of the property.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.