So-called 'fragmented donations' using funds from the Unification Church religious organization have been found to target not only politicians from the People Power Party but also some from the Democratic Party of Korea. Yonhap News

It has been revealed that funds from the Unification Church religious organization flowed to politicians from the Democratic Party of Korea, not just the People Power Party.

JoongAng Ilbo reported on the 2nd, stating, "So-called 'fragmented donations' using funds from the Unification Church religious organization have been found to target not only politicians from the People Power Party but also some from the Democratic Party of Korea. While prosecuting President Hak Ja Han of the Unification Church for alleged violations of the Political Funds Act regarding illegal corporate/organizational donations, the special prosecutor applied this only to donations to the People Power Party and excluded donations to the Democratic Party."

The Criminal Division 27 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Woo In-seong) held the first trial on the 1st for President Hak Ja Han, former Secretary-General Jeong Won-ju, former Unification Church World Headquarters Director Yoon Young-ho, and former Unification Church Finance Department head Lee, who were indicted on charges of embezzlement under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, etc.

President Han and others are accused of illegally donating 144 million won to the central and metropolitan/provincial party chapters of the People Power Party during the 2022 presidential and local elections, by mobilizing Unification Church regional organizations, Districts 1-5.

According to the newspaper, at the time, the Unification Church also made donations to current and former local government heads from the Democratic Party of Korea. An official from District 4, responsible for the Honam region among the five Unification Church districts, testified during the special prosecutor's investigation, "I supported Gang Giseong, Mayor of Gwangju (2 million won); Lee Yong-seop, former Mayor of Gwangju (3 million won); and Kim Young-rok, former Governor of Jeollanam-do (3 million won) in 2022." This means donations were sent to Democratic Party candidates in the Honam region's local elections in the same year.

The Democratic Party of Korea utilized some of the 40 million won sent from the church headquarters as donations. Furthermore, District 2, responsible for the Gyeonggi and Gangwon regions, also reportedly donated a total of 10 million won to candidate Lee Kwang-jae, then a candidate for Governor of Gangwon Province (Democratic Party of Korea), under the names of the district head and other officials.

On March 4, 2022, former Headquarters Director Yoon transferred a total of 210 million won, including 40 million won from each of Districts 1-4 and 50 million won from District 5, under the guise of mission expenses.

Of this amount, 144 million won was deposited into the donation accounts of People Power Party metropolitan/provincial party chairpersons and others: 30 million won from District 1, 21 million won from District 2, 30 million won from District 3, 18 million won from District 4, and 45 million won from District 5.

Previously, the special prosecutor's team did not separately investigate or indict People Power Party politicians who received fragmented donations under personal names, citing the difficulty in recognizing them as funds from the Unification Church organization.

Furthermore, although the special prosecutor's team identified circumstances of donations to the Democratic Party during the investigation of Unification Church district heads and officials, they excluded the Democratic Party donations from the scope of the charges.

This is reportedly due to the special prosecutor's team's judgment that the money, which former Headquarters Director Yoon distributed to each district totaling 210 million won with instructions to "donate to the People Power Party metropolitan/provincial chapters," was "difficult to consider as corporate funds." However, regardless of the church's directives, the funds did flow to the Democratic Party.

The special prosecutor's team stated, "Since Districts 1-5 received money along with the 'instruction to donate to the People Power Party,' the donations to the Democratic Party among them constitute personal misconduct," and added, "Only church-level political donations were subject to investigation."

However, Article 31, Paragraph 2 of the Political Funds Act stipulates, "No person shall donate political funds using funds related to domestic or foreign corporations or organizations." The exclusion of only Democratic Party donations from indictment may lead to accusations of a "selective indictment" aimed at emphasizing the collusion between the People Power Party and the Unification Church in President Han's trial.

A lawyer, a former prosecutor in charge of public prosecution, stated, "Whether the money was given to the People Power Party or the Democratic Party, it is the same political fund," and added, "If the source of the funds is the same corporate money, the logic that donations to only one party are illegal is difficult to understand."

Editorial Department, Hanmi Ilbo