The property division lawsuit between Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, and Roh Soh-yeong, director of Art Center Nabi, which has dragged on for more than nine years, is nearing its conclusion.
According to legal sources on the 9th, the deadline for both sides to re-appeal the remand judgment in their property division case is the 15th, which falls on Saturday.
If the last day falls on a Saturday or a holiday, the deadline is extended to the first business day after that, making the 17th effectively the final deadline.
If by then both Chey and Roh do not re-appeal or submit a withdrawal of appeal, the remand judgment ordering Chey to pay Roh 944 billion won as a property division amount will be finalized as is, ending the legal battle after about nine years.
However, if either side re-appeals, the case will again be reviewed by the Supreme Court.
Chey, the eldest son of the late SK senior chairman Choi Jong-hyun, and Roh, the daughter of the late former President Roh Tae-woo, married in 1988 and had three children.
However, in 2015 Chey disclosed the existence of a child born out of wedlock in a letter to a daily newspaper, making the breakup public. The two sides have since continued a legal battle, starting with Chey's 2017 filing for divorce mediation.
In the first trial of the divorce case, the court ordered Chey to pay Roh 100 million won in consolation money and 66.5 billion won in cash as property division. SK shares were excluded from division on the grounds that they were Chey's separate property.
In the second trial, the court sharply increased the amounts, setting consolation money at 2 billion won and the property division at 1.3808 trillion won. It determined that SK Group's growth involved former President Roh's "300 billion won slush fund" and Roh's contributions, making the shares subject to property division.
However, in Oct. last year the Supreme Court sent the case back for retrial. It said the slush funds of the former president were illegal, so even if the money flowed into SK, they could not be considered Roh's contribution for property division purposes.
At that time, the second-trial decision setting consolation money at 2 billion won was finalized as is, and the remand proceedings dealt only with property division.
On the 24th of last month, the remand court ruled that the SK shares held by Chey are subject to property division and calculated the division amount at 944 billion won. It is the largest property division amount publicly known in a chaebol divorce case in Korea.
After the ruling, Chey's side said, "Our divorce was finalized by the Supreme Court ruling last year after a separation process that lasted close to 20 years," and added, "We apologize for causing concern to many people throughout the process."