Cho Yong-gi's son entangled in paternity suit

By Kim Tong-hyung

Cha Young

Cho Hee-jun

Former Democratic Party spokeswoman Cha Young has filed a paternity claim against the son of Cho Yong-gi, the pastor who leads the world’s largest Christian congregation, according to a local news report.

Cha, now 51, a news anchor-turned-politician, first met Cho Hee-jun, 47, then chairman of vernacular newspaper Kookmin Ilbo, when she was a presidential aide for the late Kim Dae-jung in 2001 and claims to have gave birth to his son in 2003, No Cut News said.

In her suit filed with the Seoul Family Court, Cha demanded that Cho first pay 100 million won of the 800 million won (about $712,000) in childcare support she believes she should have got since 2004. She is also demanding that Cho pays 7 million won a month until 2022 when her son legally becomes an adult.

Cha had a daughter with her current husband, who committed suicide after the couple divorced in 2003.

Representatives of Cha and Cho were unreachable for comment.

Cho proposed to Cha in 2002 and promised to marry her if she divorced her husband. She divorced him in early 2003 and moved in with Cho and gave birth to his son in the United States in August that year. Cho stayed in Korea and sent Cha $10,000 every month, but abruptly cut her off in 2004. Cha then reunited with her husband because she couldn’t raise the child alone, according to the report.

The Cho family has been entangled in legal trouble in recent years. Prosecutors earlier this year indicted the elder Cho, 77, founder and pastor of the Yoido Full Gospel Church, for allegedly stealing tens of billions of won in worshippers’ money and underpaying taxes.

A group of church elders in 2011 filed a complaint with prosecutors claiming that Cho diverted more than 20 billion Korean won of church money to acquire the stocks of a company owned by Hee-jun at prices dramatically higher than their market value in 2002.

Cho founded the Yoido Full Gospel Church in 1958 and it now claims more than 450,000 followers. His proteges have built their own ''disciple churches’’ across the country, creating a congregation of around a million, with Cho as the leader.

Cha was a news presenter for MBC for three years before leaving the broadcaster in 1987 to work as a media consultant for then-Democratic Party presidential candidate Kim. After Kim became president, Cha worked as a presidential aide on education and culture issues from 1999 to 2002.

She worked as a Democratic Party spokeswoman for two years until 2011 and represented the party as a parliamentary candidate in last year’s local elections, but lost in the Yangcheon district of Seoul.