“Although it’s a trial to punish adultery, it doesn’t seem like that.”
The Seoul High Court, handling the second trial in the divorce case between Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group, and Roh So-young, director of the Art Center Nabi, ruled on May 30th that Chairman Chey must pay 1.38 trillion won to Director Roh as a division of property. The alimony amount was also significantly increased from 1 billion won in the first trial to 20 billion won. The photo shows Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group (left) and Director Roh So-young of Art Center Nabi answering questions from reporters during an appeal hearing related to the divorce at the Seoul High Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on April 16th.
Hong Joon-pyo, the mayor of Daegu, criticized the divorce proceedings between Chairperson Chey and Director Roh as being akin to a lawsuit to recover the ancestral property of Lee Wan-yong.
According to the political sector on October 31st, Mayor Hong expressed on social media the previous day that “Despite being a trial to punish adultery, it doesn’t seem like that.”
Mayor Hong questioned, “Is it justifiable that the money, which grew to over 1 trillion won after more than 30 years was initially from illegal political funds transferred to a corporation, is not reclaimed by the nation but instead passed on to descendants?”
While Mayor Hong did not specify a particular case in his post, it is interpreted as targeting the situation where Director Roh obtained a division of property worth 1.4 trillion won based on 30 billion won of slush funds from her father, former President Roh Tae-woo, amid the ongoing divorce lawsuit.
Previously, Director Roh had submitted a memo to the court during the divorce case referring to her mother’s note stating “Sunkyung 300 billion,” arguing that these funds significantly contributed to the establishment of the SK Group. There is also an assessment that she has gained a favorable position in the property division case.
However, some political circles and civic groups claim that the Roh family still hides slush funds and insist on an investigation to reclaim these funds. Mayor Hong’s statement is interpreted to address Director Roh, who has not expressed a position on this issue.