A Seoul court ordered Smilegate founder Kwon Hyuk-bin to pay more than 2 trillion won, about $1.5 billion, to his ex-wife in a divorce settlement, the largest asset division ever awarded by a South Korean court.
The Seoul Family Court granted the divorce between Kwon and his ex-wife, identified by her surname Lee, who filed for the split in November 2022 seeking half of his stake in Smilegate Holdings. The court ordered Kwon to transfer a 35 percent stake in Smilegate, worth roughly 2.5 trillion won, along with a 65 billion won cash payment.
How does this compare to past South Korean divorce settlements?
The award surpasses the previous record, the 94.4 billion won settlement awarded to Roh Soh-yeong following her divorce from SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won. That case had already drawn intense public attention in South Korea over how courts value a spouse’s contribution to a business built during marriage. Kwon’s settlement is more than twenty times larger.
The court reportedly valued Kwon’s total assets at as much as 8 trillion won, built largely on his ownership of Smilegate, the gaming company he founded in 2002. Smilegate has grown into one of South Korea’s most successful gaming firms, best known internationally for the free-to-play shooter CrossFire and the MMORPG Lost Ark.
What does the ruling mean for Smilegate?
Kwon is expected to remain Smilegate’s controlling shareholder even after transferring the stake, since South Korean company founders in similar cases have typically retained majority control despite large settlement payouts. The company has not issued a public statement on how the ownership transfer will affect its operations or any future listing plans.
South Korean family courts have increasingly recognized a spouse’s indirect contribution, such as homemaking and child-rearing, as equivalent to direct financial contribution when dividing wealth built during a marriage, a shift that legal analysts say is reflected in the size of this award relative to earlier rulings.
Sources: France 24 · SBS News · Bangkok Post
