Police are stepping up their investigation into allegations that the Unification Church lobbied political circles.
According to police on the 27th, the Korean National Police Agency's special task force summoned a former Unification Church Korea president surnamed Lee as a reference witness that day. The questioning ran for about six hours starting at 9:25 a.m..
The former president oversaw Unification Church followers, and it has been confirmed that Lee served as the Unification Church Korea president for nearly three years starting in Dec. 2017.
Police suspect that around the same period, between 2018 and 2020, the Unification Church side provided money or valuables to Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Chun Jae-soo (former Minister of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries) and former lawmakers Lim Jong-seong and Kim Kyu-hwan.
After the questioning, they did not answer reporters' questions such as "Did you see former Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries Minister Chun Jae-soo in 2018?"
In addition, at 2 p.m. that day, police also summoned, as a reference witness, one official known to have been involved in managing Unification Church funds.
The reason police proceeded with reference-witness questioning over the weekend is their assessment that if the former Minister, who faces allegations of receiving money or valuables in 2018, is charged with violating the Political Funds Act, the statute of limitations could run out at the end of this month.
The statute of limitations for violations of the Political Funds Act is seven years. Police also re-questioned, for eight hours the previous day, Song Gwang-seok, who served as president of the Unification Church-affiliated group Universal Peace Federation (UPF), as a suspect.
A police official said, "The investigation team is fully aware of the statute-of-limitations issue and is proceeding as quickly as possible." Under current law, the statute of limitations for violations of the Political Funds Act is seven years.