Pews to power: Churches fight to keep grip on Korean politics

After a series of scandals, South Korea is seeing a backlash against the influence some churches have had on politicians.

- Wendy Teo

Three years after being linked to former Japanese premier Shinzo Abe’s assassination, the Unification Church, whose followers are informally known as “moonies”, is back in the news again.

Han Hak-ja, widow of the church’s late founder Moon Soon-myung was indicted on Oct 10, on allegations of bribing South Korea’s former first lady Kim Keon Hee with two luxury bags and a diamond necklace worth 80 million won (S$72,680) in total, in exchange for business and political favours.

Revered as the “Mother of Peace” by her followers, the 82-year-old is also facing separate allegations of providing one billion won in political funds in January 2022 to conservative People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker Kweon Seong-dong, a close confidant of former president Yoon Suk Yeol, to garner support for the Unification Church in the event Yoon was elected to power. He was.

Under Han’s leadership, the Unification Church was also said to have instructed their followers to vote for Yoon in the 2022 presidential election. She has denied all allegations against her.

Yoon won the race by a whisker in May 2022, but was impeached in April 2025 over his martial law debacle of December 2024.

Han’s indictment has put the spotlight squarely on the outsized influence that South Korean churches have historically had on the country’s politics. It is a connection that goes back decades, with the churches and the politicians helping each other. But Mr Abe's assassination and Yoon’s fall from grace have seen the tide of public opinion turn against such churches. Can the country’s politics finally break free from their grip?

The writing is on the wall as other prominent churches are also being investigated for their links with Yoon and his conservative PPP.