Han Hak-ja questioned hours after PPP lawmaker Kweon arrested on charges of accepting bribes from her church
The special counsel investigating former first lady Kim Keon Hee questioned the leader of the Unification Church on Wednesday over suspected orders to funnel money to a ruling party lawmaker in exchange for political backing from the Yoon Suk Yeol administration.
Han Hak-ja, 82, appeared before investigators hours after Rep. Kweon Seong-dong of the People Power Party was arrested on suspicion of tampering with evidence related to charges of accepting illicit political funds.
When pressed by reporters on whether she directed a 100 million won ($71,700) payment to Kweon and ordered gifts of a necklace and handbags for Kim, Han replied, “You will hear about it later,” adding that her earlier absences from three summonses were due to health issues.
The special counsel reportedly posed nearly 50 pages of questions to Han.
The team shared in a briefing that Han made her statements without exercising the right to remain silent, but it did not disclose whether the church leader admitted or denied the allegations against her.
The religious group’s alleged connections to the former presidential couple surfaced when the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office investigated Kim and Jeon Seong-bae — a shaman who was taken into custody on Aug. 21 — ahead of the special counsel team’s official launch in mid-April.
A high-ranking official in the Unification Church, identified by the surname Yoon, is suspected of giving luxury items to Jeon to be passed on to the now-former first lady, following President Yoon’s 2022 election win.
The church official is suspected of attempting to lobby Kim through Jeon in order to gain support for projects in Cambodia in the church’s interests, acquire the South Korean cable news channel YTN and receive an invitation to the presidential inauguration ceremony.
But the special counsel team reportedly identified church leader Han as a key suspect in its probe after church official Yoon testified that he had delivered the luxury items “under the instructions of the Unification Church’s leadership” during questioning in mid-July.
The Unification Church has distanced itself from the official’s alleged actions and claims the luxury gifts were a “personal wrongdoing.”
Investigators suspect Han of interfering in the People Power Party’s 2023 leadership race by mobilizing church members to back Kweon’s bid for floor leader. According to reports, the counsel confirmed that Jeon and church official Yoon exchanged text messages discussing how many party members were needed to sway the vote and noting that President Yoon Suk Yeol’s support “still firmly lies with Kweon.”
Han is also suspected of enlisting the help of a close aide to former President Yoon to block a police investigation into overseas gambling allegations in 2022 and 2023.
Kweon, 65, is accused of receiving 100 million won in illegal political funds from a senior Unification Church official in January 2022, weeks before the presidential election. Investigators say they secured a diary entry from the official referencing a “lunch with Kweon Seong-dong” and “one large bill (of) support,” along with a photo of a box of cash found on the official’s wife’s phone. The counsel also cited a text message in which the church official told Kweon, “I hope what I gave you today will be of help to the presidential candidate.”
Kweon has denied the allegations, insisting he never accepted money or gifts from anyone linked to the Unification Church. Following his detention, he condemned the court’s ruling as “the start of political retaliation led by the Lee Jae Myung administration.”
“The special counsel team is fabricating a fictional case,” he wrote on social media. “No matter how much it tries to oppress me, I will reveal the truth and prove my innocence.”
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