S Korean court orders SK Group boss to pay record $1b in divorce

SEOUL, May 30 (AFP): The chairman of South Korea's sprawling SK Group was ordered by a court on Thursday to pay his wife $1 billion in cash in the country's largest divorce settlement.

The Seoul High Court ordered Chey Tae-won to pay Roh So-young, the daughter of former president Roh Tae-woo, 1.38 trillion won as a settlement, court documents provided to AFP showed.

The amount was a significant increase from an earlier lower court ruling of 66.5 billion won and takes into account the contributions Roh So-young and her father made to Chey's success.

SK Group runs businesses that include South Korea's leading mobile carrier and also controls SK Hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip maker.

"It was reasonable to rule that, as his wife, Roh played a role in increasing the value of SK Group and Chey's business activity."