[Edaily Reporter Choi Oh-hyun ] The ruling in the retrial to redetermine the scale of property division in the divorce lawsuit between SK Group Chairman Choi Tae-won and Art Center Nabi Director Noh So-young will be handed down today (the 24th). This comes approximately nine months after the Supreme Court overturned the second-instance ruling last year.

According to legal circles on the 23rd, the Seoul High Court’s Family Division 1 (Presiding Judge Lee Sang-ju) will hold a sentencing hearing at 2:00 p.m. today for the retrial regarding the division of assets in the divorce case between Chairman Choi and Director Noh.

In this retrial, the key issues are whether Chairman Choi’s SK shares will be recognized as subject to property division—excluding his contribution to former President Roh’s slush fund, in accordance with the Supreme Court’s ruling—and to what extent Director Noh’s contribution will be evaluated. Additionally, given the recent sharp rise in SK’s stock price, the timing of the valuation of the assets is also a matter of interest. The outcome of this ruling is expected to determine the fate of what is considered the largest property division case in the history of domestic divorce litigation. In particular, given the significant discrepancy between the property division amounts recognized in the first and second trials, there is keen interest in what the final division amount will be.

Chairman Choi publicly disclosed his child born out of wedlock in 2015 and filed for divorce mediation with Mrs. Noh in 2017. When the mediation broke down, Mrs. Noh filed a counterclaim, seeking not only a divorce but also substantial alimony and property division, including half of Chairman Choi’s SK shares. Since then, the two sides have engaged in a protracted legal battle over whether Chairman Choi’s SK shares are subject to property division and the extent of Mrs. Noh’s contribution to the group’s growth.

In December 2022, the court of first instance granted the divorce between Chairman Choi and Mrs. Noh, ruling that Chairman Choi must pay Mrs. Noh 100 million won in alimony and 66.5 billion won in property division. At the time, the court determined that Chairman Choi’s SK shares—inherited from his father—constituted separate property and could not be considered jointly acquired assets. However, the court did grant a partial division of assets, taking into account Ms. Noh’s support of his business activities through household management and child-rearing.

In contrast, in May 2024, the appellate court overturned the lower court’s ruling, increasing the alimony to 2 billion won and substantially raising the property division amount to 1.3808 trillion won. In particular, the court ruled that Chairman Choi’s SK shares were also subject to property division, resulting in a division amount approximately 20 times larger than that of the first trial. The court found that, during the SK Group’s growth, 30 billion won provided by former President Roh Tae-woo—Mrs. Roh’s father—served as the foundation for the group’s expansion, and that Mrs. Roh also contributed to the accumulation of assets by supporting management activities as a spouse.

However, the Supreme Court overturned the property division ruling and remanded the case last October. The Supreme Court ruled that the 30 billion won from former President Roh Tae-woo constituted illegal funds—so-called “slush funds”—and therefore could not be protected under the law. It also held that the 1.1116 trillion won in assets that Chairman Choi had effectively disposed of by making third-party gifts to relatives after the marriage had effectively broken down could not be subject to property division. Accordingly, the court remanded the case to the Seoul High Court, instructing it to recalculate the property division ratio. In line with the Supreme Court’s remand, the amount to be divided is expected to be less than that awarded in the second-instance ruling. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court upheld the second-instance ruling that held Chairman Choi responsible for the breakdown of the marriage and ordered him to pay 2 billion won in alimony; the divorce was also finalized.