Seoul: A joint prosecution-police team investigating suspected ties between politics and religion allegedly secured evidence four months ago suggesting that followers of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus had been encouraged to join both the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) and the ruling Democratic Party (DP), according to legal sources.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the team obtained this controversial statement in March during the questioning of former Shincheonji members. It was revealed that the youth chairperson of the church's Simon branch allegedly instructed followers to join both parties ahead of the 2022 local elections by stating, "I am a member of both the PPP and the DP. We must show our strength to politicians."
The Simon branch is responsible for church followers in northwestern Seoul and northern Gyeonggi Province, including Goyang. Despite having secured such a statement, the investigative team did not pursue a probe into the DP's involvement. Instead, they focused their efforts solely on allegations that church members collectively joined the PPP, as indicated by legal sources.
Furthermore, the team did not investigate whether church members were also encouraged to join the DP or if there were similar cases in other regions. Instead, they concentrated their efforts on raiding only the PPP headquarters between February and March. This led to the indictment of the church's founder, Lee Man-hee, and other church officials on charges of coercing followers to join the PPP to influence the party's presidential primary in 2021 and its candidate nominations for the 2024 general elections.
The investigation has only recently expanded to include allegations that church followers joined the DP last year during the party's candidate nominations for the June 3 local elections.