Asia's biggest divorce settlement, involving more than $1 billion, took a new turn as Roh Soh-yeong, the wife of Chey Tae-won, South Korean conglomerate SK Group's chairman, has expressed her will to keep the marriage intact in the latest trial.
A Seoul court on Tuesday ordered SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to pay 66.5 billion won ($50 million) in property division to Roh So-young, ending the couple’s marriage of 34 years.
Harold Hamm's divorce in 2012 from Sue Ann Arnall; estimated at $974.8 million ($1.2 billion inflation adjusted). Adnan Khashoggi's divorce in 1980 after 20 years from Soraya Khashoggi; estimated at $874 million ($2.7 billion inflation adjusted).
The divorce rate in South Korea in 2021 was two divorces per 1,000 inhabitants, slightly lower than the value of 2.1 in the previous year.
There is no provision for a no-fault divorce (except for a divorce by agreement between the parties). The Korean judicial divorce process is a fault-based contest between a wrongdoer and the wronged. The courts reason that a guiltless spouse should not be forced into an unwanted divorce.
The crude divorce rate (divorces per 1,000 Australian residents) was 2.2 divorces per 1,000 residents in 2021, up from 1.9 in 2020. The total number of divorces granted in 2021 was 56,244, the highest number of divorces recorded since 1976.
There are 2 types of divorces in Korea for both Koreans and foreigners married to Koreans. These types are 1) uncontested divorce or divorce by agreement, and 2) contested divorce or divorce by trial. There is a third type, divorce by mediation, which everyone needs to go through before getting a divorce by trial.
In traditional Korean culture, like many traditional cultures, marriage between a man and a woman were decided by the bride and groom's elders. As in Confucian values family and the customs of a family is placed above all. Marriage is considered the most important passage in one's life.
Although a significant number of married couples decide to go their separate ways each year in Korea, divorce is not a topic that Koreans talk about casually, largely because it is still a taboo subject. The divorce rate in Korea has increased for two consecutive years since 2018, according to Statistics Korea.
The Adelaide couple married in 1994. They had a teenager son who is suffering from autism. After the estrangement, both are now before the court for divorce and settlement of the marital estate amounting to almost $110M.
While many men are quick to say that their ex-wives took everything, including the dog—or that is what many country songs lead you to believe, anyway—the truth is that women often fare worse in a divorce. Men are typically the ones who go on and live their lives as if a divorce never happened.
Of publicly-confirmed settlements, the most expensive divorce ever was between Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott, who settled in 2019 for a reported $38.3 billion.
How Fast Can I Divorce in Korea? Court proceedings take time. However, when the parties agree to divorce, the divorce could be finalized within a month or two. In the case of a contested divorce, it usually takes 5 to 9 months to get the ruling from a court of the first instance.
In 2021, the average age of divorce for South Korean women was 46.8 years, while for South Korean men it was 50.1 years. The average age at divorce of both female and male South Koreans increased slightly compared to the last year.
According to statistics from HEYDAY magazine, more than half (53.7%) of men over the age of 50 have had an affair, compared with 9.6% of women over the age of 50. This data was quite shocking as it shows over 50% of men over the age of 50 have been unfaithful to their spouse.
An age gap of 12 years is significant in Korean culture because it means that the couple is a full zodiac cycle apart.
Nevertheless, there was long a law in place to forbid marriage between people with the same surname and ancestral paternal origin. In 1997, however, South Korea's Constitutional Court ruled the law unconstitutional, and the civil code was amended in 2005 to forbid only marriage between closely related people.
The average age of first-time marriage was 31.1 years for women and 33.4 years for men, as of 2021. Compared to the average age of first-time marriage in 1991, 30 years ago - 24.8 for women and 27.9 for men – women and men now wait 6.3 years and 5.5 years, respectively.
Vatican City is a Catholic-run city-state governed by the Pope. Deeply Catholic as it is, it does not allow citizens to divorce. Surprising very few people. The Vatican is the smallest country in the world, covering approximately 100 acres with a permanent population of 842 all-Catholic residents.
Italy. Perhaps it's the irresistible romance of the place that means couples stay married for an average of 18 years - according to the Economist, this is longer than any other country evaluated.
However, Portugal tops the list of countries with the highest number of divorce cases followed by Spain, Luxembourg, and Russia.
Korean names consist of two parts: a family name and a given name. Traditionally, a child takes their father's surname like in many other cultures, but Korean women do not take their husband's surname after marriage.
Following the division of Korea, the laws concerning family and marriage began to diverge. North Korean law does not formally ban marriage between people with the same last name, while the Civil Code of Republic of Korea inherited the prohibition on same-surname marriage from the colonial era.
Rules restricting marriage
In Korea, a child inherits his or her father's surname. Traditionally, men and women who have the same surnames and "ancestral homes", called dongseong dongbon (Hangul: 동성동본, Hanja: 同姓同本), are not permitted to marry.