Seoul, Oct 13 (IANS ) Top South Korean business leaders, including Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong, attended the wedding of SK Chairman Chey Tae-won's daughter on Sunday, an event that also marked Chey's first public appearance with his estranged wife since their multibillion-dollar divorce battle.
Chey Min-jung, the younger daughter of Chairman Chey, tied the knot with Kevin Hwang, a Chinese American serving in the U.S. Marine Corps., at the Grand Walkerhill Hotel in eastern Seoul.
The couple is known to have developed feelings for each other as both share military backgrounds. The younger Chey took the public by surprise, as an heiress to a top South Korean conglomerate, when she enlisted as a naval officer candidate in 2014, reports Yonhap news agency.
She was commissioned as a lieutenant and served on a naval destroyer during a deployment to the Gulf of Aden in 2015. Chey later worked at SK hynix Inc., the chipmaking affiliate of her father's business empire, and recently left the company to launch a health care startup.
The wedding also drew attention as the father Chey is embroiled in a messy divorce suit with his wife, Roh Soh-yeong, pending a Supreme Court decision after an appeals court ruled in May that Chey should pay 1.38 trillion won ($1.02 billion) in property division and a solatium of 2 billion won to Roh.
The wedding marked the first time that the two appeared in public together. They apparently arrived at the hotel separately but sat next to each other during the ceremony.
Top business leaders were invited to the wedding. LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo was the first to arrive at the event, followed by Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and others, including Hanwha Group Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan and HD Hyundai Vice Chairman Chung Kisun.
Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung was unable to attend due to his schedule, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The wedding took place in a discreet manner, with access strictly limited to only about the 500 invited guests who had received invitations in advance.