Special counsel estimates 2,000 Unification Church members recruited to PPP in 2023

The Unification Church's headquarters in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province / Yonhap

A special counsel team investigating alleged collusion between the Unification Church and former first lady Kim Keon Hee has estimated the number of church believers who joined the then ruling People Power Party (PPP) ahead of its 2023 leadership election to be around 2,000, judicial officials said Thursday.

The estimate was disclosed by special counsel Min Joong-ki's team on Nov. 7, when it additionally indicted Kim, shaman Jeon Seong-bae and Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja on charges of violating the Political Parties Act.

Min's team concluded that Kim and Jeon conspired to recruit a large number of Unification Church members to support a specific candidate in the PPP leadership election in 2023 in exchange for offering government policy favors and proportional representation seats in the National Assembly to the church.

The team also suspects that the recruitment plan proceeded with the consent of Han and a former church official surnamed Yun.

The Political Parties Act criminalizes the provision of benefits to campaign officials and others for the purpose of having a specific person elected in intraparty competitive elections.

The team believes that Kim and Jeon devised the plan to recruit Unification Church believers to the PPP around November 2022, with the intention to support Rep. Kweon Seong-dong. But the target of their support was believed to have changed to Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon after Kweon decided not to run for the party leadership.

The special counsel team is reportedly investigating Rep. Kim as well, suspecting that his wife delivered a luxury gift to the former first lady in return for support in the PPP leadership election. Rep. Kim was elected PPP chair in March 2023.

Former first lady Kim, under arrest since August, has been standing trial on charges of involvement in stock price manipulation schemes, meddling in candidate nominations for elections and taking bribes from the Unification Church in exchange for favors. Han has been in custody since September over charges of bribing Kweon in 2022 in exchange for his help in gaining favors for the church.