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CBS: For the 2nd time, a defiant church group is linked to a COVID outbreak in South Korea
For the 2nd time, a defiant church group is linked to a COVID outbreak in South Korea
BY JEN KWON
AUGUST 19, 2020 / 12:26 PM / CBS NEWS
August 15 is Liberation Day in South Korea, when the country marks the end of its rule under the Japanese empire. This year, the 75th anniversary, saw large public gatherings of conservatives all over the country, vocally condemning President Moon Jae-in, who they believe is too soft on North Korea and on the South's former imperial subjugator.
Pastor Jun Kwang-hoon helped lead one of the largest rallies, in the Gwanghwamun area of central Seoul. He had been told to stay home, pending the results of a coronavirus test, but video shows him addressing the crowd without a mask on.
Since the protests, the number of new coronavirus cases confirmed daily has spiked into the triple digits. More than 600 parishioners from Jun's Sarang Jeil Church alone have now tested positive, along with himself, his wife and his secretary.
Pastor Jun Kwang-hoon helped lead one of the largest rallies, in the Gwanghwamun area of central Seoul. He had been told to stay home, pending the results of a coronavirus test, but video shows him addressing the crowd without a mask on.
Since the protests, the number of new coronavirus cases confirmed daily has spiked into the triple digits. More than 600 parishioners from Jun's Sarang Jeil Church alone have now tested positive, along with himself, his wife and his secretary.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-korea-coronavirus-outbreak-linked-defiant-church-group-2nd-time-covid-pandemic/
There are so many distortions and omissions in this CBS article. "Pastor" Jeon Kwang-hun is out on bail after being arrested and jailed earlier this year for campaign finance violations. He is still facing trial and will be charged with more crimes. His liability for cases confirmed in his church is now over four million US dollars, One of the conditions of his bail was that he not participate in public assemblies. He is a politician rather than a pastor. He is closely tied to the former leaders of the right wing Liberty Korea Party who changed their name to the United Future Party for the last election to protect the guilty. UFP lost the April 15 election anyway in a landslide victory for the democratic party of President Moon Jae-in, which gives them a filibuster proof majority.
The democratic party and President Moon are not soft on Japan, the former imperial "subjugator." The CBS assertion is completely false. The democrats are regarded as having an anti-Japanese foreign policy because South Korean courts allowed private lawsuits to go forward against Japanese corporations that exploited slave labor from Korea during WWII. Moon also repudiated a settlement in the so called comfort woman (sex slaves) dispute with Japan which was concluded with former conservative president Park without consultation of the victims, their survivors or their representatives. It is the conservatives like "pastor" Jeon and the leaders of the United Future Party who are pro-Japanese authoritarians. The US and Japan embrace Jeon and the conservatives for this very reason. The inner religious conservative network is supported by "ga moon" and "chaebol" (elite families and corporate owners) whose political power and wealth originated from their collaboration with the colonial occupiers and the subsequent corrupt US supported dictatorships. These networks are criminally corrupt and still control much of the South Korean business world and justice system. These political interests the legacy of colonial Japan, and authoritarian dictators, their allies and offspring are the political element that the US and Japan support to the present time. Unbelievable as it may seem, one of the crowds proudly displayed the Japanese flag along with US and Korean flags on Independance Day. This indicates that the planners of this demonstration are totally out of touch with modern political reality in South Korea.
Jeon's rally was not large by recent historical standards. Estimates put the illegal Gwanghwamun rally at 10 to 20,000 persons. Rallies last February and March drew 100 to 200 thousand conservatives by comparison. So this means except for the extremists mobilized by Jeon and his far right authoritarian allies, (the paramilitary Taegukki groups) the majority of conservative followers prudently stayed home. Even the current leadership of the UFP "Mi Tong Dang," prudently avoided endorsing "pastor" Jeon's criminal acts although they tacitly support them.
The purpose of the demonstrations confined to Seoul, and not reported anywhere else in South Korea, is to discredit and paralyze the current South Korean government by deliberately spreading the covid 19 virus. If the government administration and filibuster proof majority in the National Assembly isn't immobilized, reforms will go forward which will result in corrupt conservative prosecutors, including the Prosecutor General being removed from office. Crimes that have been covered up for years, will be exposed, and a series of conservative politicians and their relatives will be headed to prison. This includes some of the top names in conservative circles.
"...stoking fears that a church's members could again be quietly spreading the virus undetected in South Korea." This isn't just a fear. It is documented that church authorities were actively concealing member identities and actively encouraged persons who were already confirmed to be positive or on a confirmed contact list to defy orders from health care authorities. Two individuals who are confirmed positive have already been arrested after fleeing and eludiing throughout the metropolitan area, apparently trying to do as much damage to the public health as possible.
