Asia-Pacific

South Korean Prosecutor’s Team Raids Unification Church HQ Over Yoon’s Wife; Group Denies Organizational Involvement

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Then South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife Kim Keon Hee are seen arriving at Haneda Airport in March 2023.

By Takashi Nakagawa / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

14:40 JST, July 19, 2025

SEOUL — A South Korean special prosecutor’s team raided the headquarters of the Unification Church, formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, in Gapyeong, a city near Seoul, on Friday. The raid was conducted in connection with corruption allegations surrounding Kim Keon Hee, the wife of former President Yoon Suk Yeol.

The special prosecutor is investigating the former first lady for allegedly accepting a luxury brand name bag, given to her by a former senior church official through a political broker in 2022, in exchange for asking Yoon’s side to make it easier for the group to run its business in Cambodia.

According to Yonhap News and other media outlets, the Unification Church denied any organizational involvement in the allegation during questioning by investigators before the investigation was transferred to the special prosecutor’s team.

However, the former senior church official said the organization’s leader Han Hak-ja approved it.