Unification Church chief Han Hak-ja arrives on the Seoul Central District Court docket for a detention warrant evaluation on Sept. 22, 2025. (Kim Younger-won/Hankyoreh)
The police activity power investigating the alleged bribery of political figures by the Unification Church has launched main raids on the non secular group, viewing its chief Han Hak-ja as having performed a key position within the pay-to-play scheme alongside Yun Younger-ho, the previous director-general of the church’s world headquarters.
The aggressive raids are seen as a bid to uncover potential proof that Han oversaw the church’s efforts to insert itself into political affairs on an organized stage, as Yun walks again his earlier testimony to investigators.
The Hankyoreh confirmed Monday that the police search warrant for church properties lists suspicions that Yun and Han conspired to provide cash and valuables to former Oceans Minister Chun Jae-soo, former Democratic Celebration lawmaker Lim Jong-seong, and former Saenuri Celebration lawmaker and present Korea Coal Company President Kim Gyu-hwan.
Together with Yun, police have booked Han on suspicion of bribery and violations of political funding legal guidelines.
On Monday, police performed a number of main raids of the Unification Church’s Cheonwon complicated in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province, which incorporates the Cheonwon Palace (a worship middle), the Cheonjeong Palace, and Cheonseung Corridor (govt workplace), along with the church’s Seoul headquarters in Yongsan District.
The police reportedly secured stories and accounting paperwork from 2018.
The police additionally performed a raid of the Seoul Detention Middle, the place Han is being held. They tried to query Han immediately, however her attorneys declined the request.
In August, Yun had instructed a particular counsel investigating alleged corruption by the previous first woman of South Korea that the church had given money and presents to politicians between 2018 and 2020. Police seem to have targeted their raids on uncovering proof that the church organized political dealings below Han.
Some posit that the raids might be a ploy to get Yun to cooperate by singling out Han because the determine in the end behind the alleged bribes.
Yun’s testimony to the particular counsel crew is what sparked suspicions concerning the Unification Church’s alleged bribery of political figures, however the former church official now seems to be strolling again earlier allegations, not too long ago saying that his testimony was “being misunderstood.”
“If Yun is holding again as a result of he thinks he’ll take the autumn for every thing [related to the bribery scandal], then conducting the investigation below the belief that Han is in the end accountable might be one technique to do it,” assessed a former prosecutor who now works as an legal professional.
Yun had beforehand indicated that presents relayed to former first woman Kim Keon-hee by way of a shaman named Jeon Seong-bae had been a part of the church’s organized lobbying efforts.
Regardless of having no direct relation to allegations of accepting political funds from the non secular group, revelations of politicians’ attendance at Unification Church occasions prior to now have additional flamed suspicions.
Chun Jae-soo, who not too long ago resigned from his publish as minister of oceans and fisheries, is suspected of attending quite a few Unification Church occasions, together with a banquet in September 2018 on the Lotte Lodge Busan to rejoice the sixth anniversary of church founder Moon Solar-myung’s dying, which is known as his “ascension to the heavenly path.”
On the time, Chun reported that he was in his hometown in Uiryeong County, South Gyeongsang Province. Nevertheless, cost information have revealed that he utilized political funds to pay for meals in Busan that day.
Kim Gyu-hwan and Lim Jong-seong, in the meantime, are being accused of accepting Unification Church cash to attend the 2018 Asia-Pacific Summit in Nepal.
By Lim Jae-woo, workers reporter; Bae Ji-hyun, workers reporter; Kim Ga-yoon, workers reporter
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