Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group and Director Noh So-young, First Appeal Hearing in Divorce Lawsuit

Postponed from January 11... Held at 2 PM on the 12th

The first appeal trial of the divorce lawsuit between Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, and Noh So-young, director of Art Center Nabi, will be held on the 12th.

The Family Division 2 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Kim Si-cheol, Kim Ok-gon, Lee Dong-hyun) will hold the first hearing of the appeal trial between Chairman Chey and Director Noh at 2 p.m. on that day. Under the Family Litigation Act, parties in a divorce lawsuit are not obligated to appear in court. However, since Director Noh appeared in court during the preparatory hearing last November, there is a possibility she will attend this hearing.

The court had planned to hold the first hearing of the appeal trial on January 11, but the trial was postponed due to issues with Chairman Chey’s legal representation and changes in the panel of judges.

Earlier, two lawyers from Kim & Chang law firm, where the nephew of a judge on the second trial panel works, were included in Chairman Chey’s legal team two days before the hearing. The Supreme Court Public Officials Ethics Committee recommends that judges avoid handling cases involving law firms where their third- or fourth-degree relatives work as lawyers.

Although a potential conflict of interest was raised, after Chairman Chey’s side submitted a new power of attorney on January 9 requesting a review of whether this constituted grounds for reassignment, the court ruled that it did not qualify as such.

Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group (left) and Director Noh So-young of Art Center Nabi

Meanwhile, one of the judges on the panel, the late Kang Sang-wook of the Seoul High Court, suddenly collapsed and passed away during exercise on the 11th of the same month, leading to a change in the panel.

In the first trial, Director Noh demanded 300 million won in alimony and half of the SK Inc. shares worth about 1 trillion won (approximately 6.49 million shares) held by Chairman Chey as property division. However, the first trial court ruled that Chairman Chey must pay Director Noh 66.5 billion won as property division and 100 million won as alimony.

Director Noh appealed the first trial ruling. In the appeal, she changed the form of property division from shares to cash, increased the amount from about 1 trillion won to approximately 2 trillion won, and raised the alimony claim to 3 billion won. This case is considered the largest divorce lawsuit in South Korea.

Chairman Chey married Director Noh, daughter of the late former President Roh Tae-woo, in September 1988 and had three children. However, in December 2015, he publicly revealed that he had an extramarital child and expressed his intention to divorce Director Noh. Subsequently, in July 2017, Chairman Chey filed for divorce mediation against Director Noh.

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