President Lee Jae Myung speaks throughout a Cupboard assembly held on the presidential workplace in Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap
President Lee Jae Myung ordered a stern investigation Wednesday into alleged unlawful ties between a spiritual group and politicians, his workplace mentioned, amid rising hypothesis that each ruling and opposition lawmakers accepted illicit political funds from the Unification Church.
Lee mentioned the investigation needs to be carried out “in a strict method no matter whether or not they’re from the ruling or opposition events or whether or not their positions are excessive or low,” the presidential workplace mentioned in a press discover, with out specifying any non secular group.
Though Lee stopped wanting mentioning the Unification Church by title, the instruction got here as new allegations have surfaced that lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Get together of Korea (DPK) accepted unlawful political funds from the church, which has been underneath investigation by a particular counsel for allegedly offering funds to Folks Energy Get together lawmakers forward of the 2022 presidential race.
The remarks mark Lee’s newest name to sever long-standing collusive ties between the political sphere and spiritual organizations, apparently focusing on the Unification Church.
“The president has strongly dedicated to utterly uprooting collusive ties between politics and faith this time,” a senior presidential official mentioned on situation of anonymity. “This exhibits how critically he takes this subject.”
Lee believes that if improper contacts with non secular teams or unlawful acts are confirmed, lawmakers from each the ruling and opposition events needs to be investigated equally, the official added.
Throughout a Cupboard assembly final week, Lee described the systematic interference in politics by sure non secular teams as a violation of the Structure and referred to as for a evaluate of measures to dissolve non secular teams discovered to have dedicated unlawful acts, citing an analogous precedent in Japan.
In March, a Japanese court docket ordered the dissolution of the Unification Church over manipulative fundraising and different unlawful acts, stripping it of tax-exempt standing.
At Tuesday’s Cupboard assembly, Lee revisited the difficulty, asking Minister of Authorities Laws Cho Gained-cheol whether or not he had seemed into his directions to evaluate measures to dissolve non secular teams concerned in political interference or offering unlawful funds.
Later within the day, a former Unification Church official embroiled in a corruption case linked to the administration of former President Yoon Suk Yeol was anticipated to call the DPK lawmakers he claims took cash from the church throughout a remaining trial listening to.
Yun Younger-ho, former head of the Unification Church’s world headquarters, is accused of giving luxurious presents to former first woman Kim Keon Hee, Yoon’s spouse, in change for enterprise favors in 2022.
The disclosure would deal a extreme blow to the DPK and the Lee administration, which have framed particular counsel investigations into Yun and church chief Han Hak-ja as a case of corrupt ties between a spiritual group and the previous Yoon administration.
On Tuesday, the particular counsel referred a case involving alleged ties between the Unification Church and DPK lawmakers to police, following criticism that its probe had beforehand focused solely opposition lawmakers.
