Following document is Public Apology issued by Korean Methodist Church in 1989 which pointed out
David Jang Jae-Hyung as "Conspiracy Worker" to sell Methodist Seminary to Unification Church.
As outcome of the conspiracy,
Sun Moon University, Unification Church's University in Korea, was activated.
It is important that the Korean Methodist Church publicly stated David Jang Jae-Hyung as high member of the Moonies.
It is expected that "Investigation Committee of Hong Kong Churches" shall carefully work on this document to identify David Jang's carrier in the Unification Church.
David Jang Jae-Hyung, Founder of ACM, EAPC, Christianpost and other organizations, are now questioned as a modern heresy in elswhere, who taught himself as "Second Coming Christ" to his young followers.
-D.W.
Public Apology to Korean Churches- Clarification of the problems raised on establishing the Sunghwa Seminary operated by Unification church and explanation of our denomination’s standMay the Lord bless Korean Churches and 10 million Christians in Korea!
Our denomination (The Korean Methodist Church) and unworthy myself (Rev. ShinMoon Shin) were in lack of knowledge on the law to establish a seminary in Korea. Our poverty and negligence enabled the Moonies (Unification Church) to change Methodist Seminary, called Sunghwa – meaning sanctification, to Unification church’s Seminary, called Sunghwa – meaning harmony in unification church’s theological term. The Moonies were very crafty to take over our school permit in the process and finally established their seminary, which later became a university from our original seminary permit. Our denomination and I are deeply sorry for the way it turned out. We repent before Korean churches and make a public apology according to our conscience to make everything clear by exposing everything the way it actually had happened.
Regarding the problem mentioned above, I had unveiled the truth along with my apology in several occasions. However, when the Sunghwa unification seminary got the permit to establish the seminary from the government in an unrighteous fashion, we needed to make Korean Christians and denominational leaders aware of the Moonies’ wicked scheme with more detailed information about what had actually happened in my denomination. In the hope that other Christians may not get some serious damages from them any more, I would like to disclose the truth in this writings.
1. The background and the process of school establishment1) As the 5th democratic republic of Korea unfolded, a new policy was issued. That was to demolish all of the theological seminaries without governmental permit. This caused all Korean denominations to get only one seminary permit for a denomination. Our denomination requested to get a permit for Sunghwa (Sanctification) Theological Seminary from the government and we received the temporary permit but without granting degrees.
2) On April 30th of 1982, the department of education granted us temporary permit until September 30th of the same year. Until the due date, we had to finish the school facility outlined by the department of education. Then we could officially get the permit to start the theological seminary. Only after properly obtaining the permit, then we were able to advertise to admit students. However, we needed to have 120 million won in the bank as a part of application to get it started.
The chief director of seminary foundation, Rev. Yunhwan Park, was not able to supply that amount of money within his financial ability. Therefore, he had a debt of 120 million won from the members of his church and deposited it into the bank account. The proof of the bank balance and the necessary documents were submitted to the department of education in order to get the temporary permit.
3) After that, our denomination was putting aggressive efforts to raise fund to establish the theological seminary. Sadly American Methodist Mission Board was not able to help us back then.
4) The fund necessary to build seminary facility for the initial stage was about 2 billion won, but the fundraising was not going well. Because of the lack of the fund, the application to extend the due date for the facility was submitted. Eventually, the extension was granted to September 30th, 1983.
5) The chief director, Rev. Yunhwan Park, resigned from his position and a business-minded deacon, Mr. KwangSik Min, who planed to borrow money from Japan to establish the theological seminary and the hospital, and to use the income from the hospital for the administration of the seminary. But this never took place. He resigned from the position. Therefore, the denomination submitted the second application to extend the due date again. The new due date was renewed to September 30th of 1984.
2. The relationship with Mr. JinSuk Seo (Current Chief director of Sunghwa University of unification church)1) Mr. Jinsuk Seo was introduced by Rev. Jinbak Choi on April 1984.
2) Rev. Jinbak Choi became a part of our denomination on May 18th 1982. He was ordained by Rev. DongHoon Han, and graducated Wesleyan Seminary on December of 1979.
3) When he became a part of our denomination, he was a pastor at a church located at 118-5 HaengDangDong SungDong-Ku and established Korean Early Childhood Ministry where he was a chief director and was very active and dedicated for this ministry. This brought the trust among the co-ministers in our denomination.
4) When the establishment of the theological seminary was in difficulty, Rev. Jinbak Choi was dedicated to help build the buildings for the seminary.
5) Sometime later, Rev. Jinbak Choi introduced Mr. Jinsuk Seo to our denomination. Mr. Seo was a CEO of Borim Co. Ltd., an arbitrator at Seoul District Court, and an examiner of trade association. He showed great promise with his financial wealth and his interests in doing voluntary works.
6) Mr. Seo was born in ChungCheong provice. He asked to run the future university by himself except theological seminary department which would be run by the denomination in exchange of his contribution to the establishment of the university at the later years of his life. The denomination suggested to hurry the establishment of the building and to discuss the internal matters later.
7) After that, Mr. Seo introduced two university professors, ChanBal Park and KeeOk Lee, and requested them to be among the board members. The denomination was not in any doubt to include them to be among the board members on April 28th 1984.
8) We had searched about Mr. Jinsuk Seo’s identity through an organization, but could not find anything suspicious. This led us to believe him as a good Christian businessman.
9) Mr. JinBak Choi rushed building the school facilities with his general agent, Mr. JaeHyung Jang, for him.
10) After that, Mr. Seo requested all the board members to resign from the administrational committee except Rev. Shin who found the seminary. Of course, this idea was rejected firmly.
11) Mr. Seo continued to suggest that he would pay for the facility if all of the board members are resigned. As our denomination continued to reject that idea, Mr. Seo delayed the building project as due date approaching fast, which was psychological pressure for all of us. As we realized that the 3rd extension was not an option from the department of education, frustration overwhelmed us knowing that the establishment of the theological school was not possible.
12) Without any notification, Mr. Seo and Mr. JaeHyung Jang preceded felling operation and public works on early December of 1984. A person near the school site called us to notify that the building project was in progress and we became aware of their move. Later they brought an entrusting contract to carry out the building project according to their own term.
13) According to the letter from Mr. Jinbak Choi, there were 13 tombs, unarmed bomb shells, and rock floor; and this prevented them from constructing any further even as they continued to do public work including 660㎡ of temporary prefab building.
14) Then they applied the permit with the temporary prefab facility. After the inspector from the department of education came to inspect the facility on January 12th of 1985, the permit was declined with the loss of temporary permit.
3. The transition of permit holder from our denomination to unification church1) The notice of the cancelation for the permit brought us total despair loosing the hope of establishing the theological seminary. Because of the lack of knowledge, we fell into deep despair and discouragement since our last hope to withhold the temporary permit was canceled. From obtaining the temporary permit on April 30th of 1982 to cancelation of the permit on January 12th of 1985, building the theological seminary was our top priority from our denomination. Therefore, we put all our efforts on this. However, the result was like chasing after the pretty rainbow, and shame overwhelmed us.
2) We quietly decided to liquidate the school foundation. But this was not an easy thing to do either since the property and assets should be returned to related organization through the department of education. School land existed and the account balance of 120 million won was on the bank account, which was from the church members. Mr. Seo already put lots of work into to public work and temporary prefab building. We were not able to pay back for these.
3) On top of that, Mr. Seo threatened us to pay back for what he already had done; otherwise, he would bring the case to the court.
4) Mr. JinSuk Seo notified us through Mr. Jinbak Choi that he would pay for the land in the amount of 240 million won in exchange of the position as the chief director for the seminary foundation.
5) Our denomination’s executive committee and theological school administration committee came to a conclusion that we did not have financial ability to establish the theological school and there seemed no possibility at the moment. This led us to give the position to Mr. Jinsuk Seo who seemed to be a good business person. Since the permit was canceled, we all thought seminary foundation was of no use. On June 4th of 1985, the chief director position was given to Mr. Jinsuk Seo in exchange of 240 million won to pay off the school land on July 20th of 1985. Rev. Shin resigned from the chief director position, and Mr. Seo was replaced in that position.
4. The scheme of unification church (The Moonies) and conspiracy with department of education.1) In the process of shifting the school foundation from our denomination to the unification church, Mr. Jinbak Choi, who introduced Mr. Jinsuk Seo, disappeared all of a sudden. Regarding to the problem of obtaining the permit in relation to Mr. Choi, we tried to contact him without any success since he moved more than 10 times with his family. This was considered to escape from the situation.
2) As an agent of Mr. Jinsuk Seo, Mr. JaeHyung Jang did all the actual works. He was the core member of unification church who led “International Unification Student Association” as a secretary-general from March of 1982 to December of 1984. Later he became a secretary-general for Sunghwa University from November of 1985 to February of 1986. He became a planning director from March of 1987 to May of 1987. It was apparent that he was deeply involved in Unification Church leadership role without any doubt since he continued to be a dean of student affairs for the Sunghwa University run by Unification church.
3) Our denomination sent a letter of protest to the head of department of education when we first found out the Unification Church’s Sunghwa Seminary was advertising their school.
4) Department of education responded us on September 8th of 1986 with a letter. It said that they returned the application for the permit on January 12th of 1985 and resubmission was made on February 25th of 1985. They sent a notification to us which we had never received on May 3rd of 1985:
Until March 1st of 1986, the facility should be completed.
Until October 30th of 1985, the submission of application for the school establishment should be submitted.
Unification church’s Sunghwa Seminary completed all of the above under their name and the department of education gave the actual permit on December 27th of 1985.
5) Although the letter from the department of education mentioned that we submitted the application for the permit on February 25th of 1985, our denomination never submitted the application, nor received any notification from the department of education.
6) Mr. Jinbak Seo asked us to borrow the seal for the school because he needed it to submit the public work for the school land. Because of the distance between Mr. Seo and the denomination, he insisted to borrow the seal. Later he returned the seal.
7) We discovered that some of the documentation for the school foundation committee meetings was missing around January of 1988. We reported this to the local police.
Closing and Conclusion:Our denomination’s Sunghwa (Santification) Theological Seminary was changed to Sunghwa (Harmony in Unification Theology) Theological Seminary either by the mistake of the department of education or by the scheme of unification church. If it was the mistake of the department of education, it should be correctly reverted. If it was the scheme of the unification church, the one who did this should be firmly reprimanded. Moreover, unrightfully established unification church’s Sunghwa Seminary should be dismissed.
In summary, Mr. Jinbak Choi was entered into our denomination with crafty plans. He brought Mr. Jinsuk Seo along with Mr. Jaesuk Lee, and Mr. Seo brought Mr. JaeHyung Jang who was one of the leaders of unification church, in order to take over Sunghwa Seminary into unification church’s Sunghwa seminary. After they achieved their goal, Mr. Jinbak Choi disappeared while Mr. Jinsuk Seo became a chief director for Sunghwa (harmony) Seminary and Mr. JaeHyung Jang became a dean of student affairs. By this, we could conclude that the unification church made a plot to take over our Sunghwa (Sanctification) Seminary to their possession.
Our denomination is planning to discuss this matter with the lawyers and bring this case to the court. Now we ask all of Korean churches to forgive us for our lack of supervision by which we were deceived by the plot of unification church and the negligence and the lack of knowledge about the education law. As we end this writing, we express our desire to take the lead to fight against the lie and scheme of the unification church which requires Korean churches to be united.
December 18th 1989
The Korean Methodist Church
WooSung Park, Bishop
Methodist Theological Seminary
ShinMook Shin, Rev. and Former Principal
