Sept. 28, 1992: Apocalyptic Movement Stirs Social Crisis in South Korea (https://web.archive.org/web/20191109015011/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-09-28-mn-97-story.html) (The LA Times/Internet Archive)
QuoteIm Hwa Ja, bewildered and depressed, has seen her entire world collapse around her. Since last November, her husband of 25 years, a prosperous director of a book-publishing firm, abruptly quit his job, sold the house, began beating her and now, to keep himself "clean," refuses to sleep with her. Im's three sons, the pride of her life, dropped out of their university. As if a malevolent spirit had infected the men she loved and turned them into strangers, they began to shun her as Satan, and they spend much of their days and nights praying at a mysterious church in Seoul.
They--along with an estimated 20,000 other South Koreans--are waiting for the beginning of the end of the world. ...
For instance, some followers--including Im's three sons--are being prepared for "martyrdom" by being told they will die painlessly and, like Jesus Christ, rise again after three days. Lists of appointed "martyrs" are said to have been prepared with names of believers and the precise date and places of their deaths. Some have already disappeared from Seoul, and families fear that they have been transported to North Korea and other places for sacrifice. ...
Although government officials here initially took a hands-off position, saying they could not interfere with religious freedom, mounting social pressure has forced them into action. Last week, Seoul police arrested Lee and charged him with fraud--misappropriating $430,000 in church funds--and illegal possession of $26,711 in American currency.
Oct. 29, 1992: No Doomsday Rapture for S. Korea Sect (https://web.archive.org/web/20191109015101/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-10-29-mn-925-story.html) (The LA Times/Internet Archive)
QuoteFor hundreds of followers of the Dami Mission in Seoul, the most amazing thing about today is that it arrived.
They, like an estimated 20,000 South Koreans, had believed they would be lifted into heaven at the stroke of midnight Wednesday in the beginning of the end of the world. The phenomenon known as the Rapture, prophesied in the Book of Revelation, set off a social crisis in South Korea as scores of believers sold their homes, quit their jobs, abandoned their families and underwent abortions to prepare for the one-way ride to heaven.
At least four followers committed suicide before Wednesday, but no new suicides were reported after midnight. ...
Police took elaborate precautions to ensure that mass suicides would not occur. Besides the 1,500 riot officers dispatched to Dami Mission, ambulances and other emergency vehicles lined the street. Some detectives were placed inside the church for surveillance; stairs leading to the building's roof were blocked and windows barred to prevent suicide leaps. Authorities also opened a damage report center to take complaints of deception or fraud. ...
In Los Angeles, a call to Maranatha Church on Wednesday was answered by a woman who sounded as if she had been crying. Her voice was hoarse. When asked how things were at the church, she replied, " Hyoo-go (Rapture) is over" and hung up. Maranatha, at 605 S. Serrano Ave., has come under fire after one of its 200 or so members died last month following a 40-day fasting and prayer ritual, reportedly in the belief that Jesus Christ would arrive soon. The death of Chang-Young Mun, 36, prompted Koreatown clerics to call for the church's closure.
Former Maranatha members and relatives of present church members have formed the Maranatha Church Victims' Assn. and have demonstrated at the church on Sundays for weeks. A Korean-American elementary school child who left the church--his mother remains a member--said on a Korean-language television broadcast last week that he was not allowed to sleep or go to the bathroom while the congregation was engaged in an all-night prayer preparing for the Rapture.
March 17, 1994: Death of Pseudoreligion Critic Focuses Attention (https://www.ucanews.com/story-archive/?post_name=%2F1994%2F03%2F18%2Fdeath-of-pseudoreligion-critic-focuses-attention&post_id=44937) (UCA News)
QuoteThe foremost example was the Dami Missionary Church in 1992. Its leader declared that the world would end Oct. 28, 1992, and he persuaded followers to turn over billions of won in cash and property to him. When police arrested him on fraud charges, they found securities and bonds scheduled to mature in 1995.
Oct. 28, 2012: After The Apocalypse That Never Was (https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2961455) (Korea JoongAng Daily)
QuoteOn the night of Oct. 28, 1992 - 20 years ago yesterday - around 1,000 fervent people squeezed into the headquarters of the Dami Mission Church in Mapo District, western Seoul, waiting for a rapture that was predicted for midnight. Some had quit jobs or dropped out of school. What was the point of going to work or school when the world was going to end?
"I bow to you, please answer our prayers," cried the believers.
"On the day of reckoning 20 years ago," recalls Kim Dong-ho, a JoongAng Ilbo reporter who sneaked into the church for 33 days to cover the story, "people in the chapel were awaiting their moment to fly into the sky with their identification cards, which proved their faith in the end of the world prophecy."
The passing of midnight without an apocalypse was a big letdown to the believers. According to the data provided by police in 1992, two believers in the apocalypse theory killed themselves and over two dozen people divorced.
At 12:10 a.m. today, as 1,500 riot police officers, 200 plainclothes detectives and 100 journalists kept watch outside the church, a teen-age boy stuck his head out the third-floor window and yelled to the crowd: "Nothing's happening!"
Eight minutes later, two girls peeked out the same window. They told reporters they never believed in the Rapture anyway, although their parents were inside, crying in despair because they had not been lifted away.
It was Dami Mission's pastor, Lee Jang Rim, who spread the Rapture theory throughout South Korea. Although he was arrested in September on charges of fraud in connection with bilking followers of hundreds of thousands of dollars, 1,000 religious pilgrims nevertheless showed up at the church Wednesday evening.
The JoongAng Ilbo tracked down the pastor of the now-defunct Dami Mission Church, who ran the end-of-the-world campaign that attracted a total of 10,000 followers in Korea and overseas. Lee Jang-rim served a one-year prison term for fraud and is contrite about his role in spreading the belief. Lee didn't respond to interview requests. ...After serving his prison term, Lee changed his name to Lee Dap-gye and founded a church in Mapo District.
When the JoongAng Ilbo visited Lee's church, which is located on the second floor of a building without a cross, 35 people were worshiping, a big comedown from his thousands of followers in the early 1990s. ...In the 1990s, Lee chose a 17-year-old boy, Ha Bang-ik, as his prophet, and Ha came up with the Oct. 28 doomsday date. Ha followed in the footsteps of Lee by converting to mainstream Christianity and is now a Presbyterian minister.
"I was too young to have questions about the apocalyptic predictions 20 years ago," Ha told the JoongAng Ilbo. "After the Oct. 28 Armageddon day passed without the second coming of Christ, I studied real theology out of repentance for what I did in 1992."
A video summary of the above articles:
Nov. 22, 2025: Cults Daily: "Dami Mission" Lee Jang Rim (the Night Shift Podcast)