hankyoreh

Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja arrives at the Seoul Central District Court for a detention warrant review on Sept. 22, 2025. (Kim Young-won/Hankyoreh)

The police task force investigating the alleged bribery of political figures by the Unification Church has launched major raids on the religious group, viewing its leader Han Hak-ja as having played a key role in the pay-to-play scheme alongside Yun Young-ho, the former director-general of the church's global headquarters. 

The aggressive raids are seen as a bid to uncover possible evidence that Han oversaw the church’s efforts to insert itself into political affairs on an organized level, as Yun walks back his previous testimony to investigators. 

The Hankyoreh confirmed Monday that the police search warrant for church properties lists suspicions that Yun and Han conspired to give money and valuables to former Oceans Minister Chun Jae-soo, former Democratic Party lawmaker Lim Jong-seong, and former Saenuri Party lawmaker and current Korea Coal Corporation President Kim Gyu-hwan. 

Along with Yun, police have booked Han on suspicion of bribery and violations of political funding laws. 

On Monday, police conducted multiple major raids of the Unification Church’s Cheonwon complex in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province, which includes the Cheonwon Palace (a worship center), the Cheonjeong Palace, and Cheonseung Hall (executive office), in addition to the church's Seoul headquarters in Yongsan District. 

The police reportedly secured reports and accounting documents from 2018. 

The police also conducted a raid of the Seoul Detention Center, where Han is being held. They attempted to question Han directly, but her attorneys declined the request. 

In August, Yun had told a special counsel investigating alleged corruption by the former first lady of South Korea that the church had given cash and gifts to politicians between 2018 and 2020. Police appear to have focused their raids on uncovering evidence that the church organized political dealings under Han. 

Some posit that the raids could be a ploy to get Yun to cooperate by singling out Han as the figure ultimately behind the alleged bribes.

Yun's testimony to the special counsel team is what sparked suspicions about the Unification Church’s alleged bribery of political figures, but the former church official now appears to be walking back previous allegations, recently saying that his testimony was “being misunderstood.”

“If Yun is holding back because he thinks he’ll take the fall for everything [related to the bribery scandal], then conducting the investigation under the assumption that Han is ultimately responsible could be one way to do it,” assessed a former prosecutor who now works as an attorney. 

Yun had previously indicated that gifts relayed to former first lady Kim Keon-hee via a shaman named Jeon Seong-bae were part of the church's organized lobbying efforts. 

Despite having no direct relation to allegations of accepting political funds from the religious group, revelations of politicians’ attendance at Unification Church events in the past have further flamed suspicions. 

Chun Jae-soo, who recently resigned from his post as minister of oceans and fisheries, is suspected of attending numerous Unification Church events, including a banquet in September 2018 at the Lotte Hotel Busan to celebrate the sixth anniversary of church founder Moon Sun-myung's death, which is referred to as his “ascension to the heavenly path.”

At the time, Chun reported that he was in his hometown in Uiryeong County, South Gyeongsang Province. However, payment records have revealed that he utilized political funds to pay for food in Busan that day. 

Kim Gyu-hwan and Lim Jong-seong, meanwhile, are being accused of accepting Unification Church money to attend the 2018 Asia-Pacific Summit in Nepal. 

By Lim Jae-woo, staff reporter; Bae Ji-hyun, staff reporter; Kim Ga-yoon, staff reporter

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