Unification Church claims its members face death threats over Abe's death

Kwak Chung-hwan, the former president of Family Federation for World Peace and Unification who was once called the No. 2 man of the church when its founder was alive, speaks during a news conference held at Hotel Koreana in central Seoul on Tuesday. Yonhap

Former No. 2 man of church offers apology for Abe's death, urges high-ranking members to repent over donation practices

By Kang Hyun-kyung, Lee Yeon-woo

The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, better known as the Unification Church, claimed that the church and its members in Japan faced death threats and hate crimes following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The threats were reactions to "abusive" donation practices of the church, founded by self-claimed messiah Moon Sun-myung in 1954 in Seoul.

Tetsuya Yamagami, the suspected gunman in the assassination of Abe during a campaign speech in the city of Nara on July 8, confessed to police that he came to hold a grudge against the former prime minister for his alleged link to the church. Yamagami's mother reportedly made a huge donation to the Unification Church that forced her into bankruptcy.

In a statement released on Monday, the church's headquarters in Korea blamed media outlets for what it called "inaccurate and biased" news reports, following a news conference hosted by a group of Japanese lawyers on July 12 that it claims triggered a raft of hostile media coverage against it.

Since then, the church noted that several media reports have been produced solely based on comments from the members of the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales of Japan, a group that represents former Unification Church members and their families.

"Due to these unbalanced media reports, not only our church but also our members were seriously defamed and their human rights were undermined. The media coverage is also feared to spur hate crimes against our members," the church said in a statement. "Our church's branches all across Japan have received numerous phone calls from people who threatened to kill our members. On our website, hate messages have been uploaded as well."

Ahn Ho-yeol, head of the public relations department of the Unification Church in Korea, pointed to anti-Korean far-rightists in Japan as the ones behind the death threats.

He said the press release was drafted by the church's branch in Japan and was released both in Korea and Japan.

"In Japan, media outlets are not interested in human rights violations and hate crimes and they heavily focused on producing stories highlighting the church's donation practice," he said, explaining why the church's headquarters circulated the press release to Korean reporters and foreign journalists based in Seoul.

The Unification Church accused the Japanese lawyers of spreading "misinformation."

The Japanese lawyers apparently portrayed the Unification Church as being evil and described Yamagami and his mother as victims of the church's exploitative donation practices.

"With these scathing remarks, they tried to justify the terrorist act that killed Abe," the church said.

It's the Unification Church's second official press release regarding the assassination of Abe and its fallout on the church following a previous one released on July 11.

Its second press release came amid an increase in foreign media reports that shed light on the church's donations practices.

Hiroshi Yamaguchi, a lawyer for the group, was quoted as saying by the Japan Times that Yamagami's act, which took the life of the former prime minister, was simply barbaric and can never be forgiven.

"But if reports about his motive ― that his mother's large donations to the Unification Church led to the family's collapse and made him vengeful ― are true, then we can understand how much pain he must have suffered due to his mother's action," he said.

Abe's death, meanwhile, has intensified a power struggle in the embattled Unification Church. The church already split into two after its founder died of complications from pneumonia in 2012.

On Tuesday, Kwak Chung-hwan, the former president of Family Federation for World Peace and Unification who was once called the No. 2 man of the church when its founder was alive, urged the church and its members to repent for the aftermath of the assassination of Abe.

"I was shocked by the news that the suspect targeted Abe because he held a grudge against the Unification Church," he said during a news conference held at Hotel Koreana in central Seoul. "I had been in several different leadership posts in the church for a long time, so I thought I am partially responsible for his death. I offer my sincere apologies."

Kwak said the assassination of Abe is a chilling reminder of the derailed Unification Church and encouraged its current leaders to repent and offer apologies to the Japanese public as well as other nations.

Kwak is the father-in-law of Moon Hyun-jin, the son of the church's founder. Moon is also the founder of the Washington D.C.-based non-profit group Global Peace Foundation. The younger Moon split from the church after his father's death in 2012.

During the press conference, he defended the younger Moon, saying he is a visionary leader insightful enough to foresee the problem of the church's excessive donation practices years ago and took measures to prevent it.

Asked if what Kwak had said during the news conference was the official stance of the Unification Church, Ahn, the spokesman, said Kwak had left the church many years ago and thus he is not in a position to represent the church any more. What he said is his own view and has nothing to do with the Unification Church, Ahn added.