Jung Myung Seok | |
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Hangul | 정명석 |
Hanja | 鄭明析 |
Revised Romanization | Jeong Myeong(-)seok |
McCune–Reischauer | Chŏng Myŏng-sŏk |
Jung Myung-Seok (born February 17, 1945) is a South Korean self-proclaimed messiah and leader of a religious group called Providence.[1] He is also known by the names of Joshua Jung, Joshua Lee Jung, Joshua Lee, and JMS.[2]
Jung originally fled Korea in 1999 after rape accusations surfaced and was officially charged in 2001.[3] After nearly 9 years on the run,[4] Jung was finally captured by Chinese police in May 2007.[5][6] Besides rape, Jung has also been charged with fraud, sexual abuse, and embezzlement.[7]
In January 2008, the Supreme Court of South Korea found that Jung forced two female followers to have sex with him as part of a religious purification ritual.[1][8] In August 2008, Jung was convicted of raping five of his followers and sentenced to six years imprisonment.[9] In April 2009, the Supreme court of South Korea sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment[10].
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Jung was born in Geumsan County, South Chungcheong.
In the 1970s Jung was a member of the Unification Church, before breaking off to create the dissenting group[11] now known as Providence around 1980 in South Korea.[12][13]
In 1999, Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) in Korea reported about sexual abuse allegedly committed by Jung. This resulted in Jung fleeing the country one day later.[14] However, accusations surfaced in other countries, and in 2001 he was investigated by Taiwanese authorities causing him to flee Taiwan.[7]
Jung was arrested in 2003 for illegal stay in Hong Kong but when released on bail, fled the extradition hearing.[15][16] Following this, he managed to evade capture until May 2007 in China. He was extradited back to South Korea on February 20, 2008.[17]
Jung believes he has come to finish the incomplete message and mission of Jesus Christ, asserting that he is the Messiah and has the responsibility to save all mankind.[18] Jung claims that the Christian doctrine of resurrection is false but that people can be saved through him.[19]
Critics say Jung's teachings pretty clearly derived from the Unification church.[20] (See Unification theology, Divine Principle.) The main differences are that:
According to former members, marriages must be approved by Jung. Additionally, both partners must have been in Providence for at least 3 years, have read the Bible 3 times, and recruited 3 new members.[12]
According to former members, "in order to gain the favor of their religious leader, the followers choose tall, pretty and young female victims as ‘sexual gifts’" and sends photos of them to Jung. Jung then "systematically goes through a process of choosing the girls from the photos that pleases him and calls upon (these girls) from overseas to rape them."[23]
According to Toyoshige Aizawa, a Christian minister engaged in weaning young people away from cults, Jung rapes them under the context "to atone for Adam and Eve's original sin, which was visited upon all mankind, it's necessary to engage in intercourse with the Lord."[20] Afterwards, Jung's aides told them they would go to hell if they told anyone.[24]
A former member said "I couldn't understand what was happening to me while I was being sexually assaulted, I was so messed up in the head, and couldn't resist whatever the guru did."[24]
Former members have said, that when Jung was in Japan, "he stayed at his aides' homes in Osaka and Chiba prefectures, where he summoned up to 10 female followers almost every day and indecently assaulted them under the pretext of 'health checks'."[24] In January 2007, police raided one such facility in Chiba, believing it to have been used by Jung to sexually assault female followers.[25]
Jung's religion is seen as a serious problem in Korea and Japan[26] and as one of Asia's most notorious cults.[5]
Jung encourages his followers to form non-religious organisations for the purpose of attracting young people without initially revealing the religious nature of the group or their real motives,[26] in a practice which has been described as "fraudulent" by lawyers.[27]
In response to the rape allegations, Providence pastor[28] Bae Jae-yong said that it was "distorted rumor that was created by the people who have slandered him" and that "all fundamental truth will be clarified by [Jung] at the prosecutor's office".[17] (This was before he was convicted.)
In April 2006, a press conference was held by EXODUS in which four unidentified women accused Jung of organised sex crimes against themselves and other women[29] which necessitated medical treatment.[30]
In January 2007, police raided a total of 8 Providence facilities in Japan on suspicion a senior member illegally obtained residence status.[31] The senior member, second in command of Providence's Japanese branch, fled to Taiwan according to law authorities. Taiwan has no criminal extradition treaty with Japan.[32]
Jung Myung Seok (born 1945-02-17) is a controversial Korean religious leader and international fugitive, wanted for several crimes.
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