MOON'S CHURCH FOUNDED BY KOREAN CIA CHIEF AS POLITICAL TOOL, PANEL SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R000600200010-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2004
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: March 16, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

ARTICLE APPEARED WAS TGTON STAR G LANE
aN k,A FApproved For Relef8ef718: CI -~1 M00 808000600200010-3
Moon's Chu.rch Founded
y Korean CIA Chief ~ as"",.
Political _ Tool, Pahel Say
Kim was among the inner core of
The Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Uni- Army officers who led the coup that
fication Church was founded by a- brought Park to power in 1961. He
director of the Korean Central Intelli- organized the KpoCIA shortly after,.
gence Agency,- Kim Chong Pil, as a and later headed the ruling party and
political tool in-1961, ' according to was prime minister. He is now out of
intelligence reports ;.released by, a favor with Park.
House investigating subcommittee. ".
The .reports also, indicate.. that IN 1970, South Korean President
South Korean President Park Chung. Park and his aides set up a board in
Hee personally directed an overt and Seoul to coordinate U.S. lobbying by
covert lobbying. effort. targeted at Tongsun *Park.and others, according
Congress and American officials.- - to the intelligence summaries... . _
Collectively,: the:.' documents - rein- That, plan was developed at a
forced reports that senior officials of . series of meetings ' in the South Ko-
the Nixon administration were aware rean president's Blue House in Seoul
of the lobbying effort.;,. ' after he rejected a plan to put Tong-
Rep. Donald M. Fraser,, D-Minn., sun Park in charge of all U.S. lobby-'
chairman of~ the investigating panel, ing I
contended: that "initiative for action Fraser gave no details on whether
pursuant to the in'tellience reports the South Korean president ap-
was sporadic, half-hearted and incon- proved, or even knew that the
clusive, with the result that Korean lobbying would include, giving
activities, which were both improper money to more than two dozen con-
and illegal, continued: to expand and gressmen.
gain. momentum ..for. some. five There has been speculation that
years. -U.S. intelligence got its information.,
by bugging the presidential mansion
THE DOCUMENTS were among a in Seoul.
sheaf of intelligence summaries, But documents 'released by
diplomatic cables, governmental Fraser's subcommittee show at least
memorandums and other documents' one of the CIA's sources was. "ac
made public by the subcommittee as casual informant."
it opened four.days of hearings on On the' Unification Church, ad
Korean efforts to influence, American intelligence report said: "Members
policy. of the church are actively engaged in
The first mention of the Unification. increasing membership in farming
Church, which has::denied any con- villages. The church apparently has
nection with the Korean government, considerable money, because it pays
came in a United- States Central= influential people in the villages a.
Intelligence ; Agency' report dated substantial sum for -;joining the
Feb. 26;'1963';-stating from an undis- . church."
closed source that, .'Kim Chong Pil
organized the Unification 'Church
while he' was director: of the ROK
(Republic of Korea) Central Intelli-
gence Agency, and has been using
the church, which has a membership
of 27,000, as a political tool."
Approved
:--FOLLOWERS OF MOON in the
United States became controversial'
for their lobbying in the early 1970s,.
allegedly in favor of South Korea,
and for their efforts, reportedly at
the direction of Seoul, to prevent the
impeachment of President Nixon. . ' The reports further said that-the
Korean Cultural and Freedom Foun- I
dation, founded in 1965, was a fore-
runner to. a Unification Church
branch in the United States.
The subcommittee released "many
other documents tracing the founding
and expansion of the' foundation -.
which, eventually claimed former
Presidents Harry S. Truman and :
Dwight D. Eisenhower as' honorary,
For Release 2004/05/21 :
R8411A9~QIEtQ@D(f6B'
fund-raising and lobbying efforts.