Korean cults: the missing link between the coronavirus, Sewol ferry disaster and President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment

When the Sewol ferry capsized off South Korea in April 2014, killing 304 people, most of them schoolchildren, the head of a controversial religious sect emerged as the ship’s de facto owner whose profit-driven remodelling of the vessel to carry extra passengers and cargo doomed it to a watery grave.

During the impeachment of then President Park Geun-hye amid corruption and influence-peddling allegations less than three years later, the daughter of a shamanistic cult leader who was among Park’s closest confidantes was revealed to have orchestrated government policy and solicited bribes from behind the scenes.

Now, as South Korea battles the largest outbreak of the novel coronavirus outside China, a fringe religious group is yet again at the centre of public outrage and scandal, casting a light on the shadowy world of Korean sects accused of misdeeds and villainy, ranging from deception and brainwashing to embezzlement, rape and murder.

More than half the cases of Covid-19 in South Korea have been traced to a regional branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a controversial sect founded in 1984 and regarded as a cult by most mainstream Christian churches. After recording just dozens of cases as recently as last week, the country has confirmed more than 3,500 infections – by far the biggest cluster outside China. Its death toll – 17 as of Sunday – is the highest outside China after Iran.