On June 16, 2022, the Republic of Korea was shocked by a horrific murder case. A men killed his ex-wife and her sister-in-law-law at the house of her younger brother, who was seriously wounded, in Jeongeup. The Korean public opinion was deeply disturbed by the incident, and called for an exemplary punishment of the assassin.
However, on June 18 the Christian TV network CBS broadcast a statement of the murderer, who said he had committed the crime because his ex-wife was a member of a Korean Christian new religious movement, Shincheonji. It came out that in the days before the murder the assassin went though four counseling sessions with Pastor Oh Myeong-hyeon of the Heresy Research Center, an institution specialized in fighting Shincheonji and other groups it considers “heretic,” which also supports kidnapping and forced conversion (deprogramming). Obviously Pastor Oh did not suggest that the man killed his ex-wife, but he excited his hatred against Shincheonji. To deflect blame from himself, Pastor Oh later held a press conference where he claimed that Shincheonji was responsible for the crime and should be punished. If the wife had not joined Shincheonji the crime would never have happened, he said.
G2247172 South Korea The Jeongeup Murder Case and the Continued Persecution of Shincheonji
