Mass Corruption and Bribery Scandals: Why Secularism Is A Necessity In South Korea
- UCL Law for All Society
- Dec 20, 2025
- 3 min read
By Jiwon Yu
As the year draws to a close, South Korea’s democracy once again finds itself buried in controversy. Recent probes have alleged that the Unification Church bribed sitting ministers and the former President Yoon Suk-yeol’s wife since 2020, reigniting concerns over the integrity of the country’s political system. While these revelations may not rival the disaster that followed the declaration of martial law just over a year ago, it once again raises a fundamental question: is South Korea’s democracy a genuine foundation for governance, or merely a façade masking entrenched networks of influence and corruption?
On December 2nd, Unification Church leader Hak Ja Han was put on trial, having been charged with bribery and graft, charges which allege that the church sought political influence through illicit gifts and cash donations to public officials and the wife of former President Yoon back in 2022. Through this, President Lee Jae-myung instructed his cabinet to consider the dissolution of religious organisations alongside initiating investigations into senior officials across party lines.
So far, as of last week, the Oceans and Fisheries Minister Chun Jae-soo became the first major figure of the Lee administration to resign after being accused of accepting bribes from the Unification Church [despite denying all allegations], with the Unification Minister Chung Dong-young also being accused of similar crimes. These incidents have transformed what would have been dismissed as a religious controversy into a constitutional crisis, one that directly implicates the hidden relationship between religion and state power in the country.
To understand why these allegations are so destabilising, it is necessary to understand the Unification Church and its theology. Founded in 1954 by Moon Sun-myung and his wife, the church ran on an anti-communist agenda that initially aimed to unify the peninsula. It rose to prominence during the 1970s and 1980s, amassing a business empire that stretched across the construction, food, education, and media sectors of South Korea, and later found a presence in around 100 countries worldwide.
The theology of the church views “politics [as] religion, and religion [as] politics.” It viewed political access as a means of fulfilling religious purposes. With Moon viewing himself as the second coming of Jesus Christ, he took it upon himself to integrate on the world stage, having met Mikhail Gorbachev and Kim Il Sung in 1990 and 1991 respectively–extraordinary feats for a religious figure at the twilight of the Cold War. The church framed this as ‘peace diplomacy,’ with critics viewing the church functioning as a geopolitical actor.
Moon’s death in 2012 saw leadership handed to his wife, but prolonged internal conflict had already fractured the movement. The loss of its role model and leader resulted in the church’s operations becoming more reliant on structural strategies–mainly political access–to maintain relevance, revenue, and legitimacy.
This is not the first time that a religious group has been caught interfering with politics in South Korea, nor will it be the last if there is no sufficiently robust safeguard implemented to prevent such repetition. South Korea’s Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but secularisation is not hostility to faith–it is the legal principle that the state must remain neutral, and that religious organisations must not wield political power through covert influence or financial inducement. However, these newly uncovered scandals reveal that existing laws governing political donations, lobbying, and nonprofit religious organisations are inadequate, lacking severely in jurisdiction and enforcement.
Meaningful secularisation requires concrete legal reform. First, South Korea should strengthen disclosure requirements for religious organisations, particularly those with significant economic holdings. Financial transparency should be mandatory, with independent audits and clear reporting of political contacts. Second, anti-bribery laws must be expanded to explicitly cover indirect religious lobbying, closing loopholes that allow “donations,” gifts, or sponsored events to function as political currency. Third, the government should establish stricter conflict-of-interest rules for public officials engaging with religious groups, including mandatory recusal and reporting obligations. Finally, the state must be willing to enforce dissolution or suspension measures when religious organisations systematically undermine democratic governance. This is not persecution; it is the rule of law. When theology justifies political manipulation, secular law must draw a firm boundary.
The Unification Church scandal is not merely about one organisation. It is a warning. Without decisive secularisation, South Korea risks allowing faith-based power networks to erode democratic accountability from within. The law must act–not to silence religion, but to protect democracy itself.
Sources:
Edited by Artyom Timofeev
Image source: https://apjjf.org/2022/17/mcgill
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