Public Opinion of the Unification Movement in Korea: 1990-2006

Chan Park
2007

The Unification Movement [UM] has grown substantially throughout the world since it was established in 1954 as HSA-UWC in Korea. As the movement has grown, its reputation has also changed. According to Aberle’s typology, UM can be conceived as both a supra individual and individual changing movement.[1] The UM confronts not only each person, but also the society, the whole nation, and even the world. Therefore, for the UM to operate in society, it is important to assess public opinion about the movement.

This paper analyzes public opinion about the UM in Korea from 1990 to 2006 by researching daily newspaper articles that report about the movement. Results show how public opinion has changed over that period and what the main issues are in each half decade.

Methodology

All articles researched for this project are from KINDS, the Korean Integrated News Database System[2] Established by Korean Press Foundation in 1990, KINDS provides news articles of 49 daily newspapers, 7 daily economic newspapers, 3 TV news companies, 13 online newspapers, 10 periodicals, and 96 local newspapers. News articles since 1990 are digitalized and easily searched by title, date, or content; there is also an archive of digital images of newspapers from 1960 to 1989. This project restricted itself to examining articles from the 10 major daily newspapers and the 5 major daily economic newspapers. All of them are published in Seoul and circulated nationwide.[3]

The research began by counting how many times stories involving the UM were reported and by how many newspapers. This tells how much public exposure the UM received and what were the most important issues raised. Next, the stories were classified by fields, such as religion, politics, economy, the peace movement, etc. Through this, we could learn what kind of movement people conceived the UM to be.

The project also analyzed the articles’ stance towards the UM: positive, neutral, or negative. This analysis was to learn which aspects or activities of the UM met with agreement or disagreement, and how public opinion has changed. The analysis focused on the article’s stance towards the UM rather that just its topic, because our purpose was to study how people regard the UM. For instant, Dong A Ilbo in 1991 reported suspicions that Korean government was giving special favors to certain enterprises including Tong Il corporate group regarding real estate.[4] While it could be seen as negative, our analysis regarded it as neutral because the article reports just the facts without any prejudice against the UM compared to other companies. On the other hand, the article of Kook Min Ilbo that reported 30,000 couples Blessing ceremony was classified as negative because of its biased and cynical attitude, even though it mentioned certain positive things about event.[5]

General Findings

During the 17 years from 1990 through 2006 (until Dec 15, 2006), the 15 daily and economic newspapers reported on 361 stories about the UM in 951 articles. On average, each story received 3 published reports, and Koreans have been exposed to news about the UM about once a week.

Classifying these stories by category, 139 concerned religion, 79 were about the peace movement, 73 about economic matters, 12 on culture, 12 about politics, 13 on education, 15 on sports, 10 about the press, and 8 about some accident. This breakdown shows that the UM is mostly conceived of as a religious movement. As peace movement ranks second, we can see that people think that the UM is not only a religion but also a social movement. Economic matters hold the third place. Actually, quite a number of Koreans believe that the UM has a huge economic foundation not only in Korea but all over the world. Sometimes this leads to criticism that the UM is not genuine or that the UM uses religion to raise money.

Examining their stance towards the UM, among 951 articles, 243 were positive, 485 neutral and 223 negative. However, examining the trend over time, positive articles accounted for 18% of all articles from 1990 to 1995, 26% from 1996 to 2000, and 35% from 2001 to 2006. Meanwhile, negative stories accounted for 30% of all articles in the first half-decade, 14% in the second, and 21% in the last. The positive press has been increasing whereas negative press has decreased. This shows that public opinion has changed for the better as the position of the UM in the society has improved. It is also the fruit of the effort of the Segye Times . It is mentioned minutely in the end of this project.

Analysis by Period
1990-1995

In this period, the UM itself seemed to be the main story, particularly when compared to the following decade. The 10 major newspapers reported on the UM 434 times, covering 121 separate matters. The World Media Conference in Moscow, Father and Mother Moon’s visit to North Korea and meeting with Kim Il Sung, and the 30,000 couples Blessing ceremony in Seoul were among the major stories.

1. Classification

The majority of stories concerned religion (39); next, economy (31), and third, the peace movement (29). Economic matters received extensive coverage because most of the newspapers focused on economic matters when Father and Mother Moon met President Gorbachev and Chairman Kim Il Sung.[6] These stories also affected the Tong Il corporate group. The public opinion generated by these meetings caused its stock price to fluctuate and caused banks to change their policies towards Tong Il. The fact that not a few Tong Il companies were faltering and were propped up by the Unification Church’s money brought in from overseas was disclosed at that time. Another big topic was the real estate holdings of the Unification Church. It was reported on 27 times, often alongside other groups that were also suspected of improprieties. In addition, there were 7 political issues, 3 issues about culture, 5 about education, 4 about the press, and 3 accidents.

2. Stance towards the UM

Among 434 articles, 77 were positive (18%), 227 were neutral (52%), and 130 were negative (30%) towards the UM. As mentioned above, although there were some good events and issues, they were reported in a negative manner. For example, when Rev. and Mrs. Moon met Kim Il Sung and made an agreement for peace of the Korean peninsula, many Koreans had a hard time to understand what happened. They could not believe that Rev. Moon, the most famous anti-communist in the world, visited North Korea and met Kim Il Sung in peace. Hence, they regarded Rev. Moon as an ambitious religious leader who wanted to expand his church into North Korea, and Kim Il Sung as a leader of the needy nation who even tried to meet his enemy to gain financial support.

3. Major stories

a. World Media Conference in Moscow (1990): The story was published 17 times in 6 daily newspapers. 15 articles of were positive and only 2 were negative toward the UM. What made the story so remarkable was that Koreans thought that not even the president of Korea could meet Gorbachev like that. Most Koreans believed that Rev. Moon played a decisive role in making the treaty of amity between Korea and the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, most newspapers reported only political and economical angles, and not how Rev. Moon as world religious leader may have influenced Gorbachev and the Soviet Union.

b. Rev. Moon’s visit to North Korea and meeting with Kim Il Sung (1991): From his departure for North Korea to his return to America via China, the matter was reported 102 times by 8 daily newspapers. 12 articles were positive, 52 were neutral, and 38 were negative. Even though Rev. Moon came to a peaceful agreement with Kim Il Sung, not a few newspapers criticized it. They argued that Rev. Moon overstepped the bounds of what a private individual should do. One daily newspaper even called it “the impudent act of Mr. Moon.”[7] However, we cannot deny the results of that meeting: economic corporation between North and South Korea, reunions of separated families, investigation into the nuclear issue, etc. Rev. Moon accomplished what is rarely done even by a president of a nation.

c. 30,000 and 360,000 couples Blessing Ceremony in Seoul (1992 and 1995): The 30,000 couples Blessing was reported 20 times and the 360,000 couples Blessing was reported 9 times. The former event was a bigger issue because some famous Japanese women participated, such as Sakurada Junko. A wedding ceremony for 30,000 couples was also unprecedented. It garnered 6 positive articles, 10 neutral and 4 negative. Most negative articles resulted from the traffic jam on the day. The 360,000 couples Blessing ceremony was less of a story than the earlier event despite its lager number. There were 6 positive articles and 4 neutral. All the positive articles were reported by the Segye Times.

1996-2000

In the period there were fewer big stories. With the establishment of several daily economic newspapers, there was constant reporting of economic matters concerning the UM. HSA-UWC changed its name to FFWPU in 1997.

1. Classification

This period saw 90 stories published in 184 articles by 14 daily newspapers. The breakdown of stories by field is as follows: religion (32), peace movement (10), economy (28), politics (1), culture (5), sports (3), education (6), press (2), accidents (3).

2. Stance towards the UM

Among 184 articles, 49 were positive (26%), 111 were neutral (60%), and 24 were negative (14%) towards the UM. Most notably was the increase in negative articles by Kook Min Ilbo , which has a Christian perspective. Kook Min Ilbo ran 18 articles during this period, and 12 of them were negative. Its percentage of negative stories was 66%, 4 times greater than the average (14%) of all newspapers. It was also an increase in its own negative reporting, since from 1990 to 1995, Kook Min Ilbo had published 39 articles about the UM, of which 21 (54%) had been negative. This trend ran completely contrary to the average for all newspapers, which showed a decrease from 30% to 14% in the same period. This situation can be interpreted as reaction of Christina society to the striking development of the UM.

3. Major stories

a. The Philippine immigration office blocked Blessed wives from immigrating to Korea (1996): This affair was caused by one Philippine ambassador to Korea who reported to his office that some Filipina women, who came to Korea after being Blessed with Koreans, were treated as maid-servants or prostitutes.[8] For a time the UM was accused in the Philippines, which also created problems for it in Korea. The story was reported 15 times by 6 newspapers, and almost all the coverage was negative. This situation ended in 1998 when the Philippine government dropped a lawsuit against UM leaders in the Philippines.[9]

b. The 360 million couples Blessing Ceremony (1997): This story was reported on in 6 stories by only 3 newspapers including the Segye Times. All the articles in the Segye Times were positive. One negative article criticized that the ceremony was held in Washington D.C., because it meant spending dollars abroad while Korea was having a difficult time with the IMF.[10] Also, accounts of the Blessing ceremonies in 1999 and 2000 were published twice and 5 times, respectively.

c. Unification Church takes over UPI (2000): As it related to the press, most newspapers covered this story, in 12 articles by 9 companies; all the articles took a neutral position. Besides, with various news stories about the economic situation of UM such as “raising 500 million dollars by offerings from overseas,”[11] the UM seemed to be laying a social foundation to become something journalists could no longer disparage or belittle.

2001-2006

In the period, a total of 150 stories were reported in 333 articles by 14 newspapers. Compared to the two previous periods, when 121 stories were reported by 434 articles and when 90 stories were reported in 184 articles, we see a greater diversity of stories touching on the UM.

1. Classification

The remarkable change is that stories about religion and peace movement increased whereas there were fewer economic stories. The numbers of stories about religion (68) and peace (40) together account for more than two-thirds of the total. Also, sports stories such as Peace King Cup soccer tournament increased to 12, almost to the same level as economic stories (14). Besides these, there were a scattering of stories about culture (4), politics (4), education (2), press (4), and accidents (2).

2. Stance towards the UM

The data shows a passable spread of stances, with 117 positive articles (35%), 147 neutral articles (44%), and 69 negative articles (21%) among 333 articles. Moreover, among 69 negative articles, 44 articles were reported by only one newspaper, Kook Min Ilbo; it accounted for 63% of all the negative articles. Those stories were almost all one-sided reports from a Christian position that regards the UM as heretical and a pseudo-religion. Thus, overall it seems that general public opinion about the UM has been improving.

3. Major stories

a. Archbishop Milingo received the Blessing with a Korean woman (2001~): This affair was huge in Korea, and maybe not only in Korea. A total of 14 stories were reported in 53 articles by 11 newspapers. When we consider reports in other media such as magazines, online news, and TV news, the amount of coverage was much larger, and its impact likewise. Although there were only 4 positive articles, 53 neutral articles, and 5 negative articles, it was effective enough that these stories were published almost as much as the fact itself. They showcased how great has been the positive response to the true family movement around the globe.

b. Peace Cup Korea (2003~): 7 stories were reported 21 times by 5 newspapers. This event evoked a good response from the many Koreans who love soccer. There were 7 negative articles about Peace Cup Korea, but all were published in Kook Min Ilbo. Another sports story was news about the Seongnam Il Hwa soccer team. The government of Seongnam city, the new home ground of Il Hwa, told the team to leave because the Christians in that area opposed the team’s staying. However, most media and public opinion blamed the city and the Christians for their attitude that did not distinguish sports from religion. It was published in 14 articles and not one of them was negative towards the Soengnam soccer team.

c. Unificationists’ violent demonstration against biased reporting (2006): This happened after the monthly magazine Shin Dong A published news that libeled the Unification Church after a reporter had secretly entered Chung Pyung. The story cited only the opinions of ex-Unification members without any official reflection of the church.[12] Thereupon, about 700 Unification members demonstrated in front of the Shin Dong A building to ask the company’s apology; then they broke into the offices and destroyed some office materials. This incident was reported by 5 daily newspapers, and all articles were negative except for the Segye Times. In my view, the incident hurt public opinion about UM. One newspaper, in its column, even compared UM to a corrupt president who was deported after he persecuted the press in a third country.[13]

Conclusion

As we have seen, public opinion about the UM is not is fixed. It is variable, and it has improved for UM in Korea. Until the UM achieved that position, there was the effort of just one newspaper, the Segye Times. Without it, we cannot imagine what public opinion of the UM would be. Among 361 stories that were reported between 1990 and 2001, 113 were published only by the Segye Times. If it were not for the Segye Times, we would have lost almost the one-third of the news coverage during that decade. Even among the rest of the articles reported in other newspapers, it was the Segye Times that advocated the position of UM and tried to inform the other papers about the genuine meaning of the facts. Over 17 years the Segye Times reported 267 stories about the UM, and 197 of them were positive. This amounted to about 80% of all the positive articles in this study.

We can further examine the change of public opinion by omitting the Segye Times and Kook Min Ilbo, to make matters more objective. From 1990 to 1995, other 8 newspapers reported 305 articles. Only 10 of them showed a positive stance, only 3%. The proportion of positive articles, grew to 5% in next five years -- 6 articles out of 112. In the last period (2001-2006), 26 among 166, 16% of all articles, were positive. This confirms that public opinion of the UM in Korean society has changed for better.

In conclusion, this study tells us that how public opinion about the UM has changed in Korea. It shows that there is hope. It gives us confidence about what can happen in the future. It all depends on how much we promote open communication with society through the media. And the media environment is changing rapidly, with the Internet becoming the most effective medium for communication in today’s society. For example, most of the Korean young generation obtains its information from online websites, so-called ‘internet portal sites’ that have web searching and news article services, rather than from real newspapers. As we find better ways to understand social opinions about the UM and to communicate with society by making efficient responses, we can expect that good changes will happen everywhere the UM is active.

Notes

[1] Yoshihiko Masuda, “Typologies of the Unification Movement” (1998), pp. 71-94; from website www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Publications/ us-2/JUS-2-5.htm.

[2] The website address is www.kinds.or.kr.

[3] The real number of published articles by all newspapers, magazines, and TV news companies is more than what the project shows. Nevertheless, the effects and opinions of each story can be estimated by these main daily newspapers.

[4] “Suspicion of Special Favor for Enterprises’ Real Estate”, Dong A Ilbo , Oct. 17, 1991, p. 23.

[5] “Strange Wedding Ceremony, a Great Fuss”, Kook Min Ilbo , Aug. 24, 1992, p. 17.

[6] “Meeting for What?” Han Gyeo Re , Dec. 8, 1991, p. 2.

[7] “Impudent Act of Mr. Moon” Seoul Shinmun , Dec. 9, 1991, p. 2.

[8] “Prohibition of Going Abroad for Filipina Wives who Got Blessing Marriage” Dong A Ilbo , Jan. 14, 1998, p. 39.

[9] “Philippine Government Withdraws a Suit for Blessing Marriage Leaders of Year 1996” Segye Times , May 2, 1998, p. 14.

[10] “Unification Church 39.6 Million Blessing Ceremony in 185 Nations” Munhwa Ilbo , Dec. 2, 1997, p. 17.

[11] “Raising 500 Million Dollars by Offerings from Overseas” Mae Il Gyeong Jae , May 27, 1998, p. 1.

[12] “Warning of Exposure Journalism of Shin Dong A” Segye Times , Aug. 25, 2006, p. 23.

[13] “Disgrace of Dong A Ilbo” Cho Sun Ilbo , Aug. 25, 2006, p. 30.