On the 13th, the special investigation team led by Min Joong-gi attempted to secure a list of party members in order to investigate allegations regarding Kim Kun-hee and the Unification Church’s suspected involvement in the membership of the People Power Party, but their first attempt reportedly failed.
The special investigation team sent investigators to the People Power Party’s central office in Yeouido in the morning to try and obtain a list of party members who joined between December 2021 and April 2024.
Although they presented a warrant and attempted to obtain the necessary documents through voluntary submission during the search and seizure, resistance from party officials led to a standoff, and the team reportedly withdrew from the scene by 1 a.m. on the 14th.
The warrant specified that they needed to verify the list of party members to investigate political fund law violations and bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes by the suspects in the special investigation.
As the standoff continued from the previous morning, the special investigation reportedly selected 20 individuals and asked the People Power Party to cross-check them against the party membership list.
Regarding this, interim leader Song Eon-seok said, “The special investigation requested us to narrow down the list from a specific religious organization’s member list to those who might be our party members, and after comparing 20 people with our party membership list, it was found that none of them were our party members.”
The special investigation’s attempt to secure the party membership list seems to be an extension of their probe into the Unification Church and Geonjin Beopsa bribery allegations involving lawmaker Kwon Seong-dong.
They aim to verify the facts by comparing the party membership list with the Unification Church’s member list.
Lawmaker Kwon is implicated in allegations that Jeon Seong-bae, known as Geonjin Beopsa, and a key Unification Church official, Yoon, tried to intervene in the March 2023 People Power Party leadership election.
It is alleged that Jeon and Yoon tried to recruit Unification Church members as party members to support Kwon’s candidacy for party leader.
At the time, Yoon reportedly texted Jeon, asking, “What exactly does Yoon-shim imply?” and “To what extent is it necessary for the party convention?” Jeon replied, indicating that “Yoon-shim remains Kwon,” thus indicating support for lawmaker Kwon.
Regarding this, Kwon claims he did not receive any political funds from the Unification Church.
Furthermore, Kwon did not run in the party leadership election.
The Unification Church has also stated that they did not provide illegal support to any individual at an organizational level.
(Photo: Yonhap News)