hankyoreh

President Lee Jae Myung speaks at a New Year’s press conference on Jan. 21, 2026, at the Blue House guest house. (Kim Tae-hyeong/Hankyoreh)  

President Lee Jae Myung called violations of the separation of church and state a “road to ruin for a country” that must be wholly eradicated as he addressed allegations that the Unification Church provided illegal funds to politicians.
 
Lee mentioned the possibility of amending laws to impose harsher penalties for such acts. Currently, political interference by religious groups can be punished based on various political relations laws, such as the Political Parties Act, the Public Official Election Act, and the Political Funds Act, as well as the Criminal Act.
 
Regarding recent discussions between the ruling and opposition parties concerning the special counsel probe investigating collusion between politics and religion, which focuses on the Unification Church and the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, Lee stated, “I do wonder if the People Power Party is less inclined to go ahead with the investigation, and are only acting like they are willing to proceed with the probe.”

The president’s comments came during the New Year’s press conference on Wednesday.

“That’s why I gave instructions to have prosecutors and police carry out a joint investigation — in case a consensus was not reached on establishing a special counsel probe,” the president said. 

Police and prosecutors are currently investigating allegations that the Unification Church provided cash and valuables to figures in the Democratic Party, including the former lawmaker Chun Jae-soo, as well as allegations that the Shincheonji sect interfered in the People Power Party’s presidential primary in 2021. 

“From what I hear, Shincheonji started [meddling in politics] at least as early as the early 2000s, and the Unification Church has also interfered quite a bit,” the president said. “There are some Protestant churches where pastors are preaching ‘Death to Lee Jae Myung’ and ‘For Korea to live, Lee Jae Myung must die,’ day in and day out.”

“The line is fuzzy on whether these other churches have [interfered in politics or not], so we haven’t done anything yet, but I suspect that eventually it will be something that gets looked into,” he said. 

“When you till a field, you don’t sift through it for every stone, big and small. You tackle the big ones first, then eventually you work your way to the smaller ones,” the president quipped. 

“Violations of the separation of church and state cannot be tolerated,” Lee said, saying that they should be “punished to the fullest extent.”

“I don’t think that these religious groups and figures are aware of how serious an offense it represents. It’s like they’ve been given a gun to defend the country, but instead they’re saying, ‘Well, it’s my gun to shoot as I please,’ and pointing the barrel at the rest of the nation,” he said, likening it to “an act of sedition.”

By Kim Hae-jeong, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]