One week before South Korea’s presidential election in 2022, about 120 high-ranking officials from the Unification Church gathered at a Seoul hotel where the group’s leader Han Hak-ja declared her support for conservative candidate Yoon Suk Yeol.
That endorsement formed part of what prosecutors said was a “systemic intervention” in South Korean politics by the wealthy and powerful church, which has become ensnared in a corruption investigation centred on Yoon’s wife, the country’s former first lady Kim Keon Hee.
The church’s ties with Yoon, who was impeached and removed from office this year, and his wife have plunged it into a scandal that threatens its future on its home turf.
Authorities on Tuesday arrested Han, the widow of Unification Church’s founder Moon Sun-myung, over alleged misconduct that included directing the church’s number-two official, Yoon Young-ho, to bribe Kim.
A special prosecutor’s indictment, seen by the Financial Times, accused Yoon Young-ho, of passing designer jewellery and other luxury accessories to Kim, as well as funds to a politician linked to the couple.
It alleges that, following the hotel meeting, the group began “actively” mobilising financial and human resources to back Yoon Suk Yeol, from whom it hoped to win favourable treatment for its vast business empire.
“They needed the influence of the Korean government and politicians to successfully pursue their ongoing projects, which required massive public funding,” said the prosecutors.
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Han, 82, who has not been charged, has denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the allegations as “false information”. The Unification Church has denied any involvement in Korean politics and condemned the investigation as “a clear violation of religious freedom”.
A spokesperson for the church declined a request to comment further, citing the ongoing investigation.
Yoon Young-ho, who has been charged with bribery, told the court last week that he delivered the luxury goods to an intermediary, but alleged that he did not know they were given to Kim. He also admitted to passing funds to a politician. He has denied other charges of embezzlement and the destruction of evidence.
Yoon Suk Yeol is facing criminal insurrection charges over his attempt to impose martial law last year. Kim is also in jail, charged with bribery, stock manipulation and meddling in candidate selection. Both have denied wrongdoing.
The Unification Church’s legal travails are only the latest controversy plaguing the group, which is formally known as Family Federation for World Peace and Unification but whose followers are commonly called Moonies.
In March, a Japanese court ordered its dissolution in the country over abusive fundraising practices. The church has been accused of coercing followers into financially ruinous donations.
In 2022, the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe — whose killer alleged his mother had been bankrupted by her contributions to the Unification Church — renewed scrutiny of such practices, as well as its long-standing links to Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic party.
The Unification Church was founded in 1954 by Moon, an excommunicated Presbyterian minister and a self-proclaimed messiah who became known for holding mass wedding ceremonies. Han took over leadership of the church after Moon’s death in 2012.
According to Korean prosecutors, Han, who has claimed that she communicates directly with God, has tried to influence Korean politics and gain benefits for the church’s sprawling business empire, which includes interests in skiing, ocean and golf resorts, a construction group, defence company, auto parts maker, and a newspaper.
Those lobbying efforts intensified around Yoon’s election in March 2022, according to prosecutors, as the church’s finances deteriorated amid a family battle between Han and her sons over leadership of the church and its commercial operations.
Prosecutors allege that in January of that year, the church gave Yoon ally Kweon Seong-dong Won100mn ($71,000) in election funding. Kweon was arrested last week over alleged bribery. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The funding was part of a “two-track approach” by the church to build political access to Yoon, according to prosecutors, alongside efforts to bribe Kim with luxury gifts including a Van Cleef & Arpels diamond necklace and two Chanel handbags.
In February, Yoon appeared at an event organised by the church in Korea alongside former US vice-president Mike Pence.
According to the special prosecutor’s indictment, two weeks after Yoon’s election in March, the church asked the incoming government to back development projects in Cambodia and Africa, as well as a peace park in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea.
Yoon later held a one-on-one meeting with Yoon Young-ho, then the church’s number-two official, according to the indictment. His administration later increased the official development aid budget for Cambodia and Africa.
Kim privately contacted Yoon Young-ho after the election to thank him for the church’s support, according to the indictment.
She later asked the church via an intermediary to organise its members to join the People Power party and support her husband’s preferred candidate in the party’s 2023 leadership election, prosecutors said.
When authorities raided the PPP headquarters last week, they found more than 110,000 church members on the party registry, according to local media.
Members of the PPP’s rival Democratic Party of Korea, which came to power in June, have demanded the PPP’s dissolution in the wake of the investigation. “Political groups that parasitise on religious power no longer have the right to exist,” said DPK lawmaker Hwang Myeong-seon.
Even conservative politicians have criticised the PPP, with former presidential candidate Hong Jun-pyo saying the party was “dominated by pseudo-religious cult leaders”.
Former president Park Geun-hye was removed from office in 2017 over a corruption and influence-peddling scandal that involved a shamanistic confidante.
“A religious cult can direct its members’ political activity, given their focus on uniformity and obedience,” said Tak Ji-il, a professor at Busan Presbyterian University.
The Unification Church in particular has cultivated political power to aid its business interests for decades, including under South Korea’s military dictatorship, when its strong anti-communist stance won favour.
“This is not a one-off thing,” said Tak, who added the scandal would harm the church’s reputation, but predicted it would survive. “Political interest is in their DNA.”
