Founder of Smilegate appeals divorce ruling

Kwon Hyuk-bin, the founder of video game company Smilegate, has appealed against a court ruling that ordered him to pay his wife 2.55 trillion won ($1.87 billion) in a divorce lawsuit, according to his lawyers Monday. The appeal came after the Seoul Family Court issued the ruling on Sept. 9, in what could be a record-high property division in the nation's divorce lawsuit. According to the lawyers, Kwon appealed against the ruling as he seeks to make efforts to restore the marital relationship. Kwon's wife, identified only by her surname Lee, filed the divorce lawsuit in November 2022. The court ordered the payout, including a 35 percent stake in Smilegate, to Lee as part of the division of marital assets. The firm is 100 percent owned by Kwon. However, Kwon's lawyers claimed that Lee had made little contribution in the marital assets. Born in 1974, Kwon graduated from Sogang University's Department of Electronic Engineering in 1999 and married Lee in 2001. He founded Smilegate the following year. He became the chairman of the Smilegate Hope Studio, a public interest foundation, in 2012 and