Park Jung-ho (박정호), an executive advisory member at SK Hynix and former vice chairman, received 26.5 billion won in the 18 months after his departure. Park’s total pay was 9.61 billion won in 2025 and 16.9 billion won in the first half of 2026. Combined, it was 26.5 billion won. Of that, 23.75 billion won was settlement of long-term incentives granted while he was a registered executive.

According to SK Hynix’s half-year report disclosed on Aug. 14, Park’s salary in the first half was 920 million won and his bonus was 15.98 billion won. The company wrote of the bonus, "Payment according to settlement of TSR-based SARs granted while serving as a registered executive in 2022." Park’s 7.77 billion won bonus in 2025 was also under the same item. Park stepped back from frontline management at the end of 2023 and retired from his executive post in 2024.

Looking only at the amount Park has received from SK Hynix since 2024, it totals 43.99 billion won. The 17.49 billion won he received in 2024 included 13.9 billion won in severance pay. Added to that were 9.61 billion won in 2025 and 16.9 billion won in the first half of 2026.

SARs are compensation that pays the rise in a stock price in cash or shares. SK Hynix granted Park 73,072 common shares on March 17, 2022, and granted 46,685 shares to CEO Kwak Noh-jung on April 27. According to the company’s disclosure, they can be exercised for four years after three years from the grant date, and are valid only if a minimum tenure of two years is met. If the stock price and dividends on the exercise notice date exceed the reference stock price at grant, the company pays an amount calculated by multiplying the number of granted shares by the gain reflecting relative TSR performance versus competitors.

The right was the same, but the amount differed depending on when it was exercised. Park settled 13,680 shares in 2025 and received 7.77 billion won. That was about 56.8 million won per share. In the first half of 2026, he received 13.77 billion won for 9,513 shares. That was 144.7 million won per share. The number of shares fell 30 percent, but the amount rose 1.8 times. It resulted from the share price rising from 651,000 won at the end of 2025 to 2.65 million won on June 30.

The settlement is still at an early stage. Park has 49,879 SARs units unpaid, and the company estimated their market value at 132.18 billion won. Added to that are 58,838 unpaid performance share units, or PSU, granted in 2023. Their market value is 155.92 billion won. Combined, the two items total 288.1 billion won. The SARs exercise period runs through March 2029.

CEO Kwak is in the same structure. He received 16.84 billion won in the first half after settling 11,640 SARs shares, and the market value of his 35,045 unpaid shares is 92.87 billion won. Adding 76.17 billion won for 28,745 unpaid PSU shares granted in 2023 and 27.29 billion won for 10,297 PSU shares in 2024 leaves 196.3 billion won outstanding.

Registered executive SARs: only two cases in 2022; 288.1 billion won left for Park and 196.3 billion won for Kwak

The issue is that these amounts clash with the cap on director compensation. SK Hynix won approval at its annual shareholders meeting on March 25 for a 15 billion won cap on director compensation for 2026. The unpaid balances for Park and Kwak alone total 484.4 billion won.

Separately from the cash cap, the company also won approval at the same shareholders meeting for 30,000 treasury shares for stock compensation under long-term incentives, and it is splitting payments that exceed the cap. PSU grants in 2023 are an example. While 426,475 shares for 234 employees were confirmed, only 372,335 shares had been delivered through the first half. For the remaining 90,140 shares, the company said the portion exceeding the cap within the registered executive payout volume will be paid in installments within future cap limits.

That is the backdrop to total compensation for directors and auditors jumping from 4.29 billion won in 2024 to 7.1 billion won in 2025 and 33.56 billion won in the first half of 2026. The company explained that 26.2 billion won of the first-half total "includes amounts converted into cash for long-term incentive stock compensation and stock option exercises separately approved at the shareholders meeting based on the number of shares."

The design itself differs by recipient. Registered executive SARs consist only of two grants in 2022 and have a seven-year exercise period. Employee SARs have been granted every year since 2023, but pay out the stock-price gain in cash in two installments after one year and then end. The volume received by 252 employees in July 2023 was 22,633 shares, about 90 shares per person.

SK Hynix’s TSR rose to 282 in 2025 from 24 in 2024 and reached 292 in the first half of 2026. The share price rose from 173,900 won at the end of 2024 to 2.65 million won on June 30. Compensation designed in 2022 captured that rise, and the final amount for the remaining volume will be determined by the share price going forward.