Pastor arrested for 'incarcerating' 400 followers on Fiji

Pastor Shin Ok-ju of the Grace Road Church. / Captured from YouTube

By Jung Hae-myoung

A Korean pastor has been arrested for allegedly “incarcerating” 400 worshippers on Fiji, the Christianity Daily, a local newspaper specializing in Christian issues, reported.

Shin Ok-ju, pastor of the Grace Road Church in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, was taken into police custody last week when she arrived at Incheon International Airport. Gyeonggi provincial police are handling the case.

Shin is suspected of having confiscated the passports of about 400 of her followers who “fled” to Fiji from South Korea since 2014, believing in her prophecy that a “great famine” was imminent on the Korean Peninsula.

They were ordered to live together in a small community under the supervision of “guardians” handpicked by the pastor. They forced her followers to take part in a violent and bloody ritual named “threshing ground,” in which they had to beat each other or they would become the target of God's punishment, according to the newspaper. One follower reportedly sustained serious brain damage from the ritual.

“A son had to hit his father more than 100 times in the threshing ground ritual,” a former member of the church was quoted as saying in a television interview.