Four Korean women accuse JMS leader Jeong Myeong-seok of rape
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Four South Korean women have accused Jeong Myeong-seok (Hangul: 정명석, Hanja: 鄭明析), the leader of the new religious organization JMS, of rape.
The four women were crying and wearing hats, sunglasses and mouth masks to cover their faces. Gim Du-hyeong (金度珩), the former leader of EXODUS, accompanied them on the press conference held in Seoul, South Korea.
EXODUS is a South Korean non-governmental organization against JMS, formed by former members of JMS. EXODUS had been tracing Jeong Myeong-seok in many nations for many years.
Gim Du-hyeong stated that Jeong Myeong-seok was an instructor for the International Sung-gong Association under Unification Church. According to other sources, in March 1980, Jeong left the Unification Church and established Ae-Chun Church. Later, the name changed and the organization reached the world. Jesus Morning Star (JMS), International Christian Association (ICA), and Global Association Of Culture and Peace (GACP), are all closely related organizations.
The organization operates worldwide, primarily on university campuses. There are 240 branches of the church in Korea alone, and there are organizations in almost all universities.
Gim said the major branch of these colorable religious organizations, Jesus Morning Star (JMS), was named after the acronym of Jeong's romanized name, "JMS". Gim also said Jeong established and exploited the evil dogma of "salvation through intercourse" to rape countless women from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.
Jeong Myeong-seok was born in Wolmyeong-dong in South Chungcheong. Gim said that Wolmyeong-dong was later claimed a sacred place by JMS. And before Jeong fled Korea, he had been living lavishly and promiscuous here.
In September 2001 Jeong Myeong-seok was charged with sexual assault by the Korean government and left the country. In November, the Taiwane version of Next Magazine covered the story of "Korean cult leader raped over hundred Taiwanese female college students". Members of Exodus soon came to Taiwan and held a press conference with an involved woman in local Legislative Yuan.
Gim said, under heavy critics of Taiwan media, Jeong fled to Hong Kong, and still kept raping Korean women who came to visit him. He was arrested by local Immigration Department in 2003 July, but escaped to Mainland China on his 100,000 USD bail. Jeong was still wanted by Interpol.
Gim said, since then Jeong have been staying in one of four lavish villas in Anshan, Liaoning province.
Gim said, on April 2 He had a group sex with more than 50 women from Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and China. Jang and Gim, two of these women, fell for the invitation of a Taekwondo performance, and were also raped and injured badly in crotch.
The two women escaped on April 4 and tried to take plane back to Korea. Jeong's gang attempted to kidnap them, but they were saved by Chinese police, and returned Korea for treatment on 7.
Then, four other presenters cried out and accused Jeong had sexually violated them in Hong Kong, Malaysia and mainland China. They demand media's effort to prompt international community to bring Jeong to justice.
Sources
Press conference on April 18
In Chinese (zh-tw):
- 姜遠珍. "被性侵犯女性集體揭發JMS教主鄭明析劣跡" — Central News Agency, 2006 April 18 (Central News Agency the state news agency of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Primary source)
- 姜遠珍. "(Photo of the conference)" — Central News Agency, 2006 April 18
Reports from Taiwan and Hong Kong
In Chinese (zh-tw):
- 王采欣. "涉馬來西亞性侵害案 鄭明析遭南韓通緝" — ETtoday.com, 2001 November 19 (Jeong was wanted in 2001 September)
In English:
- Sandy Huang. "S Korean religious figure faces sexual assault accusations" — Taipei Times, 2001 November 12 (Jeong was covered by media in Taiwan on November)
In Chinese (zh-tw):
- 陳志東. "攝理教韓受害女性控訴教主 記者會火爆口角衝突" — ETtoday.com, 2001December 10 (Media conference in Taiwan 2001 December 10)
In Chinese (zh-hk):
- 靜態組. "淫邪教主招徒亂港 性侵犯三港女 周五遺返南韓" — The Sun (Hong Kong), 2003 July 30 (Arrested in Hong Kong 2003 July 30)
