Photo: Mun Seon-myeong (left) and his wife Han Hak-ja, who leads the Unification Church after Mun's death. Credit: public domain.
The cult is implicated in the assassination of Japanese prime minister Abe Shinzo, and its newspapers grace the waiting room tables at the White House in Washington. Even though more than a decade has passed since the 2012 death of its founder Mun Seon-myeong 문선명 (better known internationally as Reverend Moon), the Unification Church 통일교 cult continues to exert a strong influence on politics in South Korea and abroad.
Mun founded the cult, officially called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification 세계평화통일가정연합, in 1954. Born in 1920 in Pyeonganbuk-do Province 평안북도 in present day North Korea, Mun claimed to be the second coming of Jesus, and aggressively proselytized both within South Korea and internationally. Today, the church has a strong presence in Japan, the United States and several African countries.
The precise number of Unification Church followers is difficult to ascertain. In a 2019 interview, Mun Seon-myeong’s son Mun Hyeong-jin 문형진, also known as Sean Moon, said there were 20k followers in South Korea. Modest as the number may seem, the cult has punched above its weight, launching numerous successful business ventures and funneling its earnings into politics and media both domestically and internationally.
The Tongil Group 통일그룹, the corporate arm of the cult, controls Ilhwa Co., Ltd. (주) 일화, maker of beverages and supplements, as well as a number of ski and golf resorts. The cult is also known for popularizing sushi in America by setting up the supply chain that enabled the supply of affordable raw fish. Media outlets are a particular focus for the cult, which owns Segye Ilbo 세계일보 in South Korea, Sekkai Nippo in Japan, the Washington Times in the United States, and the global United Press International news agency.
The Unification Church has been especially active in finding political patrons. With its deep coffers and its rabid anti-communist line, the cult quickly found an audience among right-wing circles in Japan and the United States. The cult’s longstanding close relationship with Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party inspired the terrorist Yamagami Tetsuya to assassinate the LDP’s Abe in 2022 because he was angry that his mother was donating too much money to the Unification Church. An internal LDP investigation following the shocking assassination found that 179 of the party’s lawmakers had ties to the cult.
In the United States, to which Mun relocated in 1971, the Unification Church formed a tight relationship with Republican politicians. The cult’s Washington Times, founded in 1982, was known to be Ronald Reagan’s preferred paper as it served as a useful mouthpiece and alternative to the more editorially rigorous Washington Post. The cult paid Donald Trump USD 2.5m to speak at an event in 2022 with Abe and former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon 반기문.
Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열 was able to leverage the cult’s connections to arrange a public meeting with former US vice president Mike Pence to enhance Yoon’s stature during his presidential campaign. (Yoon repaid the favor by promising to fund the cult’s proselytizing in Africa, disguised as international aid.) When the Lee Jae-myung 이재명 administration raided the cult’s headquarters, the Washington Times ran an op-ed by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich decrying the raid against “a major religious leader.”
