Stranger Things

Feb. 29, 2020: "월급 받으면 OO할게요"..'신천지 회사' 직원들은 맹세했다! (Naver/KBS)

Translation Available Here:
Feb. 29, 2020: Kim Nam-hee Was Convicted... But Was Shincheonji An Unaware Victim? (Reddit)

Dec. 10, 2020: 한때 동거 이만희·김남희..법정에서 원색적 비난 (CBS)

QuoteOnce cohabitation Lee Man-hee and Kim Nam-hee... criticized in court

Lee Man-hee and Kim Nam-hee, who once lived with Shincheonji's No. 1 and No. 2, criticized the opponent in court as defendants and witnesses.

In his final statement, Lee Man-hee, who is on trial for violating the infectious disease prevention law and embezzlement, claimed that 90 percent of Kim Nam-hee's words were false.

Kim Nam-hee stated in a previous trial as a witness that Lee Man-hee, the head of the Shincheonji branch, received money in return.

Reporter Yoo Young-hyuk reports.

The final trial of Shincheonji's religious leader Lee Man-hee, who is on trial for violating the infectious disease prevention law and embezzlement, was held at the Suwon District Court on the 9th.

In his final statement, Lee Man-hee, the leader of the church, once criticized Kim Nam-hee, who lived with him as the second-in-command of Shincheonji.

The religious leader stated, "90 percent of Kim Nam-hee's words are lies, and those who lie are demons."

He also handed over the embezzlement charge to Kim, saying, "Kim Nam-hee asked me to open a bank account, so I made a bank account, but I don't know where I spent the money."

The religious leader claimed that he had experienced Kim Nam-hee for nearly 20 years, but Kim betrayed her.

Earlier, Kim Nam-hee, who appeared as a witness in this trial on the 25th of last month, severely criticized the leader Lee Man-hee.

Kim Nam-hee launched a barrage of criticism, saying that the religious leader was sucking the blood of Shincheonji believers.

Kim also said, "I couldn't meet religious leader Lee Man-hee without money in the Shincheonji organization, which is a one-man dictatorship," adding, "I witnessed frequent payments of checks and cash by believers, including local governors."

Lee Man-hee and Kim Nam-hee were once seen living together at the Palace of Peace and other villas in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province, as the No. 1 and No. 2 Shincheonji.

However, in 2017, Kim Nam-hee disappeared from the Shincheonji event and the religious leader Lee Man-hee attacked Kim Nam-hee as a apostle

Since then, the two have been engaged in litigation, including a lawsuit for the return of shares of a cable TV production company owned by Shincheonji, following a dispute over ownership of real estate worth billions of won.

Kim Nam-hee filed a complaint with the police against religious leader Lee Man-hee on charges of embezzlement of funds from Shincheonji in March, when the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases from Shincheonji surged.

Meanwhile, the prosecution demanded a five-year prison term and a fine of 3 million won for Lee Man-hee, saying, "The nature of the crime is very poor, ignoring the public authority and interfering with epidemiological investigations and quarantine activities."

A sentencing hearing for the leader will be held at the Suwon District Court on January 13 next year.

Jan. 1: For Refugees, What Happens After Escape? (Yahoo News)

Feb. 5: 30,000 North Korean Children Living in Limbo in China (The Guardian)

Feb. 19: North Korea Ordered Assassination of Defector (The Korea Times)

March 8: South Korea's Coffee Shop for Defectors (BBC with Alex Jensen!)

March 8: Most North Korean Refugees Are Women - Here's Why (Liberty in North Korea)

March 27: North Korean Defector Criticises China in Rare Beijing Talk (Yahoo News)

March 31: Q&A: Hyeonseo Lee on North Korean Defectors in China (The New York Times)

April 4: They Flee North Korea, Only to be Adrift in the South (AP)

April 12: Number of Defectors up 17.5%on-year in Q1 (The Korea Times)

April 20: Lee So-Yeon Speaks Out For NK Female Defectors (The Korea Times)

April 26: How Our Society Forces a Fixed Identity on North Korean Defectors (Hankyoreh)

May 13: Life as a North Korean Refugee (Hyeonseo Lee for The New York Times)

June 9: NK Defector Completes S. Korean Military Service (The Korea Times)

June 21: New programs help defectors from North Korea adjust, shed stigma (UPI)

Aug. 1: Defectors Suffer From Low Social Status in South (Korea JoongAng Daily)

Aug. 18: For elite North Korean Defector, a Job & Bodyguards Await in South (Reuters)

Aug. 18: Trafficked, Enslaved & 'Without Hope' in China (News Deeply)

Aug. 23: NK Said to be Dispatching Hit Teams to Kill Defectors (The Asahi Shimbun)

Aug. 24: N. Korea dispatches defector kidnapping agents to China (DongA Ilbo)

Oct. 18: She Fled NK, Turned to Online Sex Work & Escaped Again (Washington Post)

Nov. 5: Defector Becomes First North Korean to Join ROTC (Korea JoongAng Daily)

Nov. 9: Statistics Highlight Abuse of NK Women in China (Chosun Ilbo)

Nov. 14: Number of Defectors Exceeds 30,000 (Chosun Ilbo)

Nov. 28: Gov't to Increase Benefits for NK Defectors (Chosun Ilbo)

Dec. 7: Defector Finds Freedom in Daughter (Korea JoongAng Daily)

Nov. 21, 2021: New Religious Movement Responses to COVID: Frame Alignment Strategies & Social Context (Benjamin Zeller/Research Gate)

This essay quotes Kim Do-hyun (a former member I met a few times when he was a member) from the CNN piece linked below that includes an embedded video. He's not just any former member, he was Lee Man-hee's translator and held senior roles given that proximity to Lee. As a member of a cult whose members lie and use deceptive practices to recruit, I found him to be the exception that proves the rule. I would take anything he says sans grains of salt.

Feb. 27, 2020: How Novel Coronavirus Spread Through the Shincheonji Religious Group in South Kore (CNN)

Quote'The culture was, even though you're sick you come in on Sunday. If you're so sick you can't come Sunday, youhave to come on Monday or Tuesday– you have to make up for the time,'Kim says. He describes how, whenhe was a member, followers would siton the floor during hours-long ser-vices 'packed together like sardines'.(CNN)

QuoteEx-members' accounts must be read with suspicion, and subjective claims such as being 'packed like sardines' reveal as much about anti-Shincheonji media bias as they do actual practices, but the pattern described here, even in its most basic claims, shows why Shincheonji norms were conducive to the spread of the virus.

I don't see why member accounts must be read with suspicion, especially in this case as what he describes as "packed together like sardines" is shown in the video. Not of course in the literal sense of bodies upon bodies, but it's pretty close to the human equivalent.

If anything should be read with suspicion - and a bowl of salt, it's this bolded quote from earlier in the piece:

QuoteKim and Bang indicate that opponents have compared thegroup to the Islamic State, marking Shincheonji's totalistic vision of world transformation as inherently threatening to the social order. The scholar of new religions Massimo Introvigne argues that opposition to Shincheonji may be traced to a more mundane complaint: its rapid growth came at the expense of the more mainstream churches, which responded by demonizing the group and labelling it as a marginal religious movement.

I've only watched some of part 3, but this is really interesting and insightful. And I really appreciate summaries of some parts of the book I had forgotten, and those are combined with her own experiences. This is the kind of video that I wish all members would watch and those who support the UC through ignorance or greed:

March 30, 2025: 1. In the Shadow of the Moons - Faith Yün Commentary


April 6, 2025: 2. In the Shadow of the Moons - Faith Yün Commentary


April 13, 2025:3. In the Shadow of the Moons - Faith Yün Commentary


About Faith:

Quotefaith yün is a former second generation Moonie, born into the Unification Church. Since leaving the Moon organization in 2012 she has become an atheist and gone no-contact with both of her parents and most of her childhood friends. In 2022, after the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by former UC member Tetsuya Yamagami, faith dropped out of college and forfeited her conditional acceptance to transfer to UC Davis for a bachelor's degree in Anthropology. She is now spending all of her time helping herself and others recover from financial abuse and coercive control, using social media to expose widespread disinformation about the cult that raised her.

Jan. 22, 2026: Escaping a Cult: Leaving the Moonies Unification Church with @FaithY3n (The Truth That Heals Podcast)

QuoteGuest Bio:
"faith yün is a former second generation Moonie, born into the Unification Church. Since leaving the Moon organization in 2012 she has become an atheist and gone no-contact with both of her parents and most of her childhood friends. In 2022, after the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by former UC member Tetsuya Yamagami, faith dropped out of college and forfeited her conditional acceptance to transfer to UC Davis for a bachelor's degree in Anthropology. She is now spending all of her time helping herself and others recover from financial abuse and coercive control, using social media to expose widespread disinformation about the cult that raised her."

So many quotes worth noting:

21:03

QuoteThere were parents in Beaverton Oregon who would have gladly adopted me and like gotten me out of the moonies if I had shown any inkling of wanting to leave but because the unification church is such a physically, financially, emotionally, and sexually abusive organization that is built on honor and uh aggressively showing your loyalty to your doctrine and your leader. I could not show even like the tiniest amount of doubt or I was going to have a very bad time.

YouTube Comment by @subliteral:

QuoteI used to work at Manhattan Center for awhile during the period  @FaithY3n describes , when several bombshells exploded in the UC community. A good handful of these involved bizarre and corrupt behavior by Rev. Moon's children that destroyed every illusion that they were good people in any way. @FaithY3n 's experience reminded me that the 2nd gen had no shielding from the impact of this corruption , no long years of training to accept the unacceptable. Many of them publicly questioned and resisted the abuses in the church , and I could see the fear this generated in older members. They raised issues OG members had long buried & denied in their heads , and were not ready to openly resist.

July 19, 2022: Fascism in The Moonies Cult/UC - A Chat With 2nd Gen Survivors (Faith Yün)

April 8, 2025: UC to Defy Order in Japan to Dissolve With Mass Wedding (Korea JoongAng Daily)

QuoteThe Unification Church will stand strong against the "religious oppression" of the Japanese judiciary and marry off 5,000 couples this weekend, the Korean church's leader said Tuesday.

April 23, 2025: 'Happiness, Love' at Moonie Mass Wedding After Japanese Court Blow (France 24)

QuoteSince the 1960s, the church is believed to have generated as much as 80 percent of its global revenues from Japan, according to Levi McLaughlin, a religious studies professor at North Carolina State University. During Japan's 1980s bubble economy, its branch reportedly sent up to 10 billion yen ($70 million) per month to the South Korean headquarters.

Japanese followers are told to "atone" for the country's colonial past, and McLaughlin told AFP the mass weddings have been framed as a form of "indemnity". The church plays a role in match-making couples, experts say, with Japanese women often matched with non-Japanese men -- and critics slam the cult-like cutting of family ties that sometimes results.

April 25, 2025: Unification Church in South Korea Holds Mass Wedding for 5,000 Couples (Associated Press Video)

Dec. 14, 2025: Match, Married, Manipulated: The Dark Reality of the Moonies (Jong-hee Celest on The Cultimatum Podcast)

Dec. 23, 2025: 10,000 Strangers Were Married in One Day. Then It Got Darker. (Truth or Hoax)

2026

April 2: Former K-Pop Idol Reveals How She Became a Shaman (The Korea Times)

QuotePark said she ultimately accepted the shamanic calling out of fear over what might happen to her family if she refused it. Fighting back tears, she said her family mattered most to her and that although she had wanted to continue working in television, she felt she had no choice but to accept that path.

Park's father also expressed conflicted emotions. "Becoming a shaman is a difficult path," he said through tears. "It is heartbreaking to see this when she graduated from a well-respected university and was raised wanting for nothing."

Well, it's sad she made that decision out of an irrational fear. May she one day read Carl Sagan's Demon-Haunted World, and, more importantly, may she never be called upon to perform an exorcism.

Jan. 20, 2020: UC South American Representative, Prosecuted for Money Laundering & Drug Smuggling in the US Court, Suspicious of Connection to the Church Leadership (WikiLeaks)

QuoteThe rumour that Tarrago was associated with narcotics organizations was well known in Paraguay. Tarrago even visited Jarvis Chimenes Pavao, the "drug kingpin" of South America, jailed in a Paraguay prison when she was active as an MP in 2015, which became a local media sensation. It was about this time that Tarrago began full-fledged activities in the Unification Church after joining the Unification Church's organizations, Women's Federation for World Peace (WFWP) and Universal Peace Federation (UPF).

Tarago, however, got promoted very fast in the Church organization, unlike ordinary worshippers. At first, she began with an invited guest as an MP and gradually expanded the radius of her activities. Later, she went up to the stage of preparing and organizing international events not only in Paraguay but also in the entire South America.

Tarrago played a leading role in connecting top Paraguayan politicians with senior members of the Unification Church when they visited Paraguay in October 2016. At that time, the Unification Church established the IAPP as a subordinate organization in Paraguay. Tarrago then was appointed as the President of IAPP in Paraguay on April 25, 2017. In the same year, she founded IAPP's South American headquarters on December 5 at the Asuncion World Trade Center in Paraguay, for which she also served as a chair for the South American region.

After all, Tarrago rose to a top position of the Unification Church for the continent, not a single country, at the age of late 30s, ahead of many former presidents and congressmen, only three years after her full-fledged activities at the Unification Church. People say that it is also unusual to set up the Unification Church's South American headquarters in Paraguay, not Brazil or Argentina.

Since then, there has been "a serious suspicion within the Unification Church that a huge amount of drug money in South America was linked to the leadership of the Church, with Tarrago as a surrogate". The Unification Church officials say, "It is impossible for Tarago with an ordinary background in the Church to take a position of the South America representative in just three years without the power of a huge amount of money". Moreover, the issue of appointing a continental representative of the Unification Church is known as "impossible without the approval of the leadership of the Church in Korea, where the President Hak Ja Han resides".

Boldly Tarrgo carried out her drug-related business when she visited various international events of the Unification Church. Tarrago met with the undercover agents disguised as drug traffickers at a UPF event at the New Yorker Hotel, owned by the Unification Church, in November 2018 to plot money laundering and propose drug trafficking. The details was revealed in the FBI's criminal complaint.

Tarrago also visited South Korea in August 2019. She attended the International Leaders Conference hosted by the Unification Church at Lotte Hotel World in Jamsil from August 15 to 17. On the 19th, she also visited Cheonjeong Palace of the Unification Church in Cheongpyeong, Gyeonggi-do where President Hak Ja Han resides, and posted photos on the Instagram.

Feb. 10, 2023: Cocaine Cartels Encroach on UC's Paraguayan Paradise (Reuters)

Quote...Reuters found no evidence the Unification Church or its members were involved in the drug-running targeted by the raids, or that it controls airstrips in the Chaco, an area authorities in Paraguay describe as lawless. Michelle Byun, the lawyer for The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification Of World Christianity, as the church's Paraguayan branch is formally known, said in a statement that the church is aware of illegal activity on its land and is cooperating with law enforcement."Both the Church, with its headquarters in Korea, and its members advocate for peace," Byun said. "In no way is the Church involved in illegal acts." ...

One prominent Paraguayan with close ties to the church has been convicted of a drug-related crime: Cynthia Tarrago, a member of Paraguay's Congress between 2013 and 2018 and the regional president of a church offshoot organization. In Paraguay, where the Chaco acquisition has long been contentious, the church has cultivated close ties with presidents, politicians and supreme court justices. Some have been granted senior positions in the church or its many offshoot organizations.

Tarrago was one of them. In 2017, she was named president of the South American chapter of the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace (IAPP). Byun, the church lawyer, was named secretary general. Launched in 2016, the IAPP recruits legislators from around the world who are committed to advancing church goals. In 2020, Tarrago and her husband, Raimundo Va, pleaded guilty to money laundering charges after being caught up in a sting operation by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. FBI agents impersonating drug traffickers provided the money that Tarrago laundered. ...

Tarrago had begun appearing at important church events in Paraguay by 2016. The following year, she spoke at a global summit in Seoul, according to church promotional materials. In November 2018, she flew into New York City with her husband, Va, for another such event at the Unification Church-owned New Yorker hotel. During their stay, the couple met an undercover FBI agent, who asked them to launder drug money. They said they were game. ...

The alleged drug-running on its land isn't the only trouble the Unification Church has faced in the Chaco. ...

In 2000, after snapping up assets in Uruguay and Brazil, Moon purchased the Chaco terrain from Carlos Casado SA, an agricultural giant named after its founder, a 19th-century Spanish-Argentine magnate. The acquisition handed the church full control of Puerto Casado, a small company town built to house Carlos Casado employees who for decades had toiled in semi-feudal conditions processing tannin from the Chaco's native quebracho trees.

Overnight, everything in Puerto Casado – its houses, roads and cemetery – all belonged to Moon and his church. Anger quickly mounted as the town's 6,000-odd inhabitants realized the homes they had lived in their entire lives, but never owned, now belonged to a self-proclaimed messiah from Korea.

When church executives flew in to close the deal, locals formed a human chain to block their plane from leaving, forcing them to sleep the night in the aircraft. Early church gestures to assuage tensions, such as an offer to hand back control of the cemetery to the town's inhabitants, only caused greater outrage.

Its administrators also stoked resentment. Locals recalled one church official, Lorenzo Myung, who would walk around town armed with a shotgun. His son, known as Lorenzito, "was even worse ... because he was more aggressive," menacing locals if they looked him in the eyes, said Martin Rodriguez, an 87-year-old Spanish priest who first arrived in Puerto Casado as a Salesian missionary in 1980.

Rodriguez and other locals accused the Myungs of involvement in a 2005 blaze that burned down the local radio station, housed in the town's Catholic church, which served as the main mouthpiece of opposition to the Korean ownership.

Dora Irrazábal, a prosecutor who led the probe into the blaze, said the townspeople and church management were "at war" when she arrived in Puerto Casado. She said Lorenzo Myung, whom she recalled as an "aggressive" man, accused locals of stealing church property but provided no evidence. Locals, meanwhile, accused Irrazábal of being a church stooge after she flew in on a church plane. "It was a tense moment," she said. Irrazábal said investigators found signs of arson but did not have sufficient evidence to charge anyone. The case remains unsolved. ...

March 25, 2022: Cynthia Tarragó is Sentenced to Two Years & nine Months in Prison (C9N Paraguay)


March 25, 2022: Paraguayan Ex-Official Sentenced in NJ for Money Laundering Scheme (NBC Philadelphia)

A conversation with Ronald Avila-Claudio from BBC Mundo fresh from his visit to Puerto Casado:

August 2, 2025: Why a South Korean Church Bought a Village in Paraguay (BBC's Fifth Floor - 18 Minutes)
Note to Self: I should grab a transcript of that.

Feb. 7, 2020: South Korean Mass Wedding Defies Virus Fears – In Pictures (The Guardian)

Feb. 7, 2020: In Sickness & In Health: Mass Wedding in South Korea Defies Coronavirus Fears (The Straits Times - Video & Article)

Quote"I am overwhelmed that I am getting married today," said Ms Choi Ji-young, who met her husband - matched by the church - only two months ago. "It would be a lie if I said I was not concerned at all about the infection," said the 21-year-old university student. "But I feel like I will be protected from the virus today."

Festivals, graduation ceremonies, and K-pop concerts have been cancelled over fears large events could facilitate virus transmission, and the authorities have asked religious groups to cooperate in preventing it spreading. The church went ahead with the event because it had been "four years in the making", as part of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Moon's birth, said official Jang Young-chul.

July 14, 2020: Review: Blessed Child Only Half-Lifts the Veil on a Family's Ties to a Cult (Slant)

Oct. 22, 2021: Inside The Moonies: 'Perfect' Cult Celebrates Mass Weddings, Sex Rituals (Yahoo News)

July 15, 2022: UC Ex-Member in Japan Opens Up About Dark Past After Mom Became Follower (The Mainichi Shimbun)

Quote"I was at an age where I couldn't live without help from my parents, and it was difficult to reject them," she said. While the Unification Church has explained that "donations are made by followers at their own will," the woman criticized the religious group as being "full of lies."

The woman was a high schooler when her mother began to devote herself to the religious group. Her mother eventually forced her three daughters, including the woman, to follow the Unification Church's "teachings." The woman also began to attend a church establishment, thinking that accepting her mother's beliefs would make her a better daughter.

In 1995, the woman, then aged 21, participated in a mass wedding held by the group. Under the system where the group matched followers who were strangers, the woman married a Korean man who was two years younger than her. After they began living together in Japan, he soon began to assault her, and the abuse continued even after they had a child. Though she wanted to file for divorce, she was told by her mother and other followers that she was at fault because she did "not show enough faith in the religion," and that "a divorce would make Satan happy.

Her second husband was also a Korean man selected by the group, and the woman moved to South Korea. She said the group demanded that she donate 1.4 million yen, or about $10,000. "My partner made false reports about his academic background, occupation, and age. He used my credit cards and other things, and I was forced into personal bankruptcy by my husband," she said.

Afterwards, she was assaulted by the man in front of her mother, and was allowed to divorce him, but remarried after being invited by the group to undergo another "blessing ceremony." The woman said, "The group teaches the doctrine that you cannot go to heaven unless you're a married couple. My mother was saddened that her daughter could not go to heaven. I also had feelings of guilt."

March 5, 2023: 'I Married A Stranger At A Mass Wedding': Life Inside The Unification Church (SBS Dateline)

2026

March 6: 'Dangerous Precedent' for Religious Freedom: Critics Assail Tokyo Court's UC Ruling (The UC-Owned Washington Times)

QuoteReactions poured in from around the world in the hours after the ruling, which critics cast as an unprecedented legal step by the Japanese court. More important, they said, it could be the first domino to fall in an international crackdown on religious freedom.

"Unfortunately, this decision treads into territory that benefits opponents of a free society," former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. "Having worked with Japan extensively on security and human rights matters ... I worry this precedent will harm Japan's standing as a champion of freedom in Asia and potentially advance the interests of those working against our mutual dedication to human dignity and religious freedom."

Related 1:
March 4, 2023: Trump, Pompeo Celebrate Group With UC Ties (The Asahi Shimbun)

QuoteFormer U.S. President Donald Trump sent a one-minute video message to an event in Seoul organized by a group related to the Unification Church. The Universal Peace Federation opened its "Peace Summit 2023" in the South Korean capital on May 2. The event will run until May 6. ... Mike Pompeo, who was secretary of state in the Trump administration, attended the event in person and gave a speech at the podium.

Related 2:
Oct. 26, 2023: UC-linked Group Paid Trump $2.5 mil. For Video Messages (The Mainichi Shimbun)

QuoteFormer U.S. President Donald Trump received some $2.5 million from the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), a Unification Church affiliated group, to make video appearances on three occasions between 2021 and 2022, while former Vice President Mike Pence was paid $550,000 for speaking at a UPF event, the Mainichi Shimbun has confirmed by acquiring U.S. official records and checking them with court documents in Japan.

Meanwhile, the UPF has maintained that the group didn't pay former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who made a video appearance at its event in September 2021. If this is true, we must question why Abe agreed to speak for the event free of charge. In the video, Abe said he "highly appreciated" the Unification Church, formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, for its efforts to "place importance on the value of family." This video appearance is believed to have been one of the triggers for his assassination in July 2022.