Seoul High Court will hand down a Friday verdict in the long-running divorce of
SK Hynix chairman Choi Tae-won and his ex-wife, the daughter of former president
Roh Tae-woo. The court will decide how much of Choi’s roughly $5.5bn wealth must
be divided; the outcome could affect his control of SK Group. The ex-wife
initially sought 42.29% of Choi’s SK shareholding—an award that would threaten
his control—before shifting to a cash claim. In 2024 a lower court ordered Choi
to pay 1.38 trillion won (about $1.0bn), a record Korean divorce award, but the
Supreme Court overturned that ruling on appeal, saying the lower court had
improperly counted alleged illicit funds linked to Roh Tae-woo as contributing
to the couple’s assets.
