Choi Tae-won and Noh So-young Divorce Lawsuit Begins... Only Noh So-young Attends, Ends in About 10 Minutes

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] The first trial of the divorce lawsuit between Chey Tae-won (60), chairman of SK Group, and Noh So-young (59), director of Art Center Nabi, was held on the 7th. The trial, conducted privately, concluded in about 10 minutes.

The Family Division 2 of the Seoul Family Court (Presiding Judge Jeon Yeon-sook) held the first hearing of the divorce lawsuit between Chairman Chey and Director Noh in the afternoon. The trial proceeded without Chairman Chey attending, with only Director Noh and the legal representatives of both parties present in court.

This trial was the first since Director Noh filed a counterclaim for property division in December last year.

Initially, Chairman Chey publicly acknowledged the existence of an extramarital child in July 2017 and expressed his intention to divorce, subsequently applying for divorce mediation at the court. However, the mediation 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 last December requesting property division, leading the case to be reassigned to a collegiate panel. At that time, Director Noh demanded 300 million KRW in alimony and a division of 42.29% of SK Inc. shares held by Chairman Chey as conditions for the divorce.

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

As the scale of the divorce lawsuit grew, the trial, which had been handled by a single judge, was transferred to a collegiate panel.

The representative for Chairman Chey stated, "Considering the need for social distancing due to COVID-19, Chairman Chey did not attend to avoid attracting reporters and affecting unrelated parties during this trial. Once the COVID-19 situation stabilizes, he plans to attend as much as possible to provide direct explanations where necessary."

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