01x02 - JMS, Messiah on Red Notice

[bunniefuu]

THE FOLLOWING EPISODE CONTAINS
DESCRIPTIONS OF SEXUAL ABUSE

INVOLVING MINORS,
WHICH MAY BE DISTURBING FOR SOME VIEWERS

[horns blaring]

SEOUL, 1999

[woman] Members of a religious group
were arrested

for kidnapping and beating
a former female member.

The police started an investigation
based on reports

saying the founder
of this religious group

had repeatedly assaulted
female followers and stolen their money.

[man] They're accused
of kidnapping Ms. Hwang,

a 27-year-old who'd left the group.

She was abducted,
and then beaten for four hours.

[speaking Korean]

[interpreter] By then, I had already
realized JMS was just a cult.

So I told them
I didn't want to be involved.

They asked me why I hated the leader,
and said I was possessed by the devil.

They started punching me and kicking me.

They stomped on my hands.

I was beaten all over.

Ms. Hwang used to live with Jeong
Myeong-seok at the JMS headquarters,

but she left the premises
when she started having doubts about it.

After leaving, she tried
to return to her normal life,

but members of JMS tried
to convince her to come back.

FROM THE MEMOIR OF MS. HWANG, VICTIM
OF SEXUAL as*ault AND KIDNAPPING IN 1999

After I left, they called me at home and
on my cellphone, asking me to come back.

[siren blaring]

But... I told them I would never come back.

They beat me while questioning me.
"Why aren't you coming to church?"

Or even, "You've been possessed."

Then they forced me into a van.

And then... they took me
to the leader's home at Wolmyeongdong.

As I got closer
to the building the leader lived in,

I saw several... rows of shoes laid out.

I think it was that day

the leader of the cult

was having an orgy
with his female followers.

[dramatic music]

As they were driving me back,

I was desperate to escape.

So I looked outside the window
and made all kinds of faces,

looking at the police,
hoping they would help me.

[Kim Do-hyeong] Through this incident,
Jeong Myeong-seok's sexual assaults,

kidnappings, and violence

were finally exposed
to the public for the first time.

[man] Ms. Hwang claimed
she and other female members

were often sexually assaulted
by the leader, Mr. Jeong.

[Ms. Hwang] He said
that his body was the Lord's.

MS. HWANG

And the Lord's spirit resided in him.

When you're constantly brainwashed
with stuff like that,

it can feel like something normal.

IN THE NAME OF GOD: A HOLY BETRAYAL

JMS, MESSIAH ON RED NOTICE

[choral church music]

[dramatic music]

[Kim Gyeong-cheon] Jeong Myeong-seok
was "crucified" in 1999.

In 1981, he said that in 1999,
he would be on the news.

KIM GYEONG-CHEON, PASTOR
EX-VICE-PRESIDENT OF JMS

He'd be sued, and his remaining followers
would all leave him.

And that's exactly
what happened that year.

NEWSROOM, JANUARY 7TH, 1999

[man] Jeong Myeong-seok,
leader of JMS, has been accused

of sexually assaulting his followers
and misuse of church funds.

He's been under investigation for years.

That afternoon, the news
about the accusations came out,

so he fled to Seoul through
the mountain behind Wolmyeongdong.

The next day, Jeong Myeong-seok
fled to Hong Kong.

1999, when we get to that year,
I'll go into my tomb phase.

Jesus died after conducting
the public ministry for three years.

That's the tomb phase, right?

I said I'd be entering my tomb phase after
my y ministry of providence, didn't I?

I told my disciples, after ten years
of work we'd face hardship and chaos.

[Gyeong-cheon] "After all,
we are the work of God."

"Look, we are going through chaos."

[shouting]

"Heavenly Father!"

"Those ignorant men are trying
to crucify our leader!"

"Heavenly Father!"

"Please free our leader!"

"Please prove his innocence!"

We gathered Myeong-seok's former members
and filed a lawsuit against him

for sexual as*ault, uh... and kidnapping.

We sued him in both the criminal
and the civil court at the same time.

Now, I would love to go
and do some work overseas. You know?

I must go overseas and work there too.
I wasn't sent for this country only.

The Gospel is meant for the world.
I must fulfill my duty.

JMS said he was going on a mission.
But he just fled to another country.

He called it an overseas mission trip.

After exposing the religious group
known as East-West Christian Union

for allegedly attacking
a former female member,

MBC began to receive calls from
other people claiming to be victims too.

This group had a history of attacking
those who left or criticized it.

NEWS INFORMER AT THE TIME

[Do-hyeong] Members of the group
beat me up...

FORMER FOLLOWER

...claiming my criticism was unfounded.

PICTURE OF THE INFORMER AFTER THE as*ault

My name is Kim Do-hyeong.

KIM DO-HYEONG
ANTI-JMS ACTIVIST

I work as a professor at Dankook
University's mathematics department.

I teach and also conduct research.

Ms. Hwang's case went public
in January of 1999.

In February,
I decided to create a website.

Many former followers entered the site,

uh... and started talking with each other.

Some of them began to get together
through the website.

Those reunions evolved
from casual meetings

and became a strong activist movement.

PROSECUTE JMS!

After finishing two years
at science high school,

I decided to enroll in KAIST,

and it was there that I majored
in mathematics and physics.

I first attended the church
the spring before my graduation.

I heard Jeong Myeong-seok
call the Grand Canyon the Grand b*tch.

He said things like "All professors in
this country should become my students."

He said really vulgar things.

So I was standing there,
speechless and stunned.

But his followers were moved by his words.
They kept saying, "Amen, amen!"

That's when I realized this was
far from being normal religious group.

The king, he really loved his queen.

He loved her.
But she wouldn't come when he called her.

He was so offended,
he simply told her to leave.

He said, "Hey, you.
Hey, b*tch. You're a nobody."

He must've said more.

He probably said,
"You sinful sl*t, you're a b*tch."

He'd say that when he got mad.
But that's not in the Bible.

That's why you must listen to me.
I'm more realistic.

I'll tell you how it really happened.
Okay?

It was almost like he was tarnishing
the holiness of Jesus.

And I noticed his method was different
from the ones used by other churches.

One day, my girlfriend told me

that Myeong-seok had grabbed her.

I asked her what she meant.

She said she'd read an essay
on contemporary religion.

MEMOIR OF A SEXUAL HARASSMENT VICTIM
MODERN RELIGION MONTHLY, 1984

WHO DO YOU THINK I AM?

JEONG MYEONG-SEOK OF AECHEON CHURCH
CLAIMS HE IS THE MESSIAH

An organization called Modern Religion
did research on religious cults.

They'd published a piece about
a female college student

sexually assaulted
by Jeong Myeong-seok in '93.

HIS HANDS KEPT CREEPING CLOSER TO ME

THEN THEY QUICKLY WENT UNDER MY BRA

AND STARTED FONDLING MY BREASTS

I INSTINCTIVELY MOVED AWAY

JEONG MYEONG-SEOK SLAPPED ME
AND TOLD ME TO STAY STILL

THEN PULLED ME CLOSER TO HIM

This very dangerous religious cult
that engaged in sexual offenses

had infiltrated a lot of
the best universities in Korea.

It was just unbelievable.

I thought, "I can't let this as*h*le
get away with it."

I kept searching for victims.

The youngest victims were students
from elementary or middle school.

Age didn't matter to him.

AFFIDAVIT

STATEMENT BY L
SUBMITTED IN 2001

HE SAID AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLER
REALLY LIKED HIM

AND PUT HIS HAND INSIDE THE CHILD'S PANTS
IN FRONT OF MANY WOMEN

EXAMINATION RECORD OF S IN 2001

JEONG WAS SEX-OBSESSED
AND HE EVEN VICTIMIZED KIDS

I asked one of them to testify
about the harassment and sexual abuse,

but she said
that she'd be dead if she did.

And I'd be my fault if
something happened to her.

NOVEMBER 2000
RECORDING OF THE VICTIM'S COURT TESTIMONY

[man] I heard many women can't sue him
even though they want to. Why is that?

[woman] He threatens to m*rder my mother!

They said he was seen
near the house yesterday.

I thought, "Maybe this b*stard
deserves to die. He's not human."

I honestly remember calling a g*n store

and actually, I even asked
for the price of a shotgun.

I think it was in 1996.

It cost about a thousand dollars
at the time.

[g*nsh*t]

I remember it was the first time in my
entire life

that I really had a desire
to k*ll someone.

Everyone in the JMS community refers
to Kim Do-hyeong like he's the devil.

FORMER JMS MEMBER

All because... [sighs]

...he often called Wolmyeongdong
and started swearing.

They'd pick up and I'd say, "Let me talk
to that as*h*le, Myeong-seok."

And they'd say, "How dare
you call our president an as*h*le?"

So I'd say, "You might think he's Jesus
reincarnated,

but he's nothing but a dog in heat to me,
so put that moron on the phone."

Kim Do-hyeong really was
seen like the devil incarnate.

I'm totally sure everyone at the
Providence heard about him multiple times.

Kim Do-hyeong and the Exodus.

"Kim Do-hyeong equals the devil."
That's what we thought of him.

I've been through so many hardships,
but they keep insulting me behind my back.

They keep saying
that someone should k*ll me.

They're under the power of Satan.

We won't sympathize with
those who follow the devil.

Following the devil,
it's filthy and disgusting.

[Lee Yun-ju] While he was traveling
after leaving Korea,

he sent for women
so that he could have sex with them.

[woman] He even assaulted local women
from the area and college students.

After going abroad, Jeong Myeong-seok
became more promiscuous

and built extravagant palaces to live in.

[woman laughing]

We're currently in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,

at the hotel swimming pool.

[cheering and laughter]

[Yun-ju] He used to book
an entire resort for himself,

and he'd invite his women from Korea
to come.

He would take them to the beach,
to hang out.

It was all about having fun and sex,

the things
Jeong Myeong-seok really enjoyed.

His kind of fun. That's what it was.

He started traveling
to different countries.

And in the meantime,
he became a big issue for Taiwan.

TAIWAN

[man] It was November.

News came out that
Jeong Myeong-seok, a Korean cult leader,

had r*ped and sexually assaulted
near a hundred female students...

KIM HONG-IL
ANTI-JMS ACTIVIST

...who went to the National
Chengchi University in Taiwan.

A CULT LEADER LURED
AROUND 100 FEMALE STUDENTS

FROM NATIONAL TAIWAN UNIVERSITY
AND NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY

AND SEXUALLY ASSAULTED THEM

Finding out Korea's group JMS had
committed such vicious crimes in Taiwan...

SANG JI-YE MEI, FORMER HEAD
ASSOCIATION OF INTEGRITY OF RELIGION

...was definitely a very big
shock to the Taiwanese community.

JMS was active
mainly on university campuses

while they were operating in Taiwan.

The group had infiltrated
some of the college social clubs.

In Taiwan, it is estimated that the number
of people directly affected by JMS,

Jeong Myeong-seok's organization,

adds up to about a hundred female victims.

The average ages were usually
that of university students.

When you consider the Korean perspective,

imagine a Taiwanese cult leader showing up

and raping a hundred female students
from SNU,

Yonsei and Korea University.

Tthe whole country would be insulted.

[Hong-il] The stories of
the Taiwanese victims are identical.

THE PROCESS BY WHICH JEONG MYEONG-SEOK
DEVOURED A FEMALE FOLLOWER

They're the same as in Korea.

He abused them by faking private meetings.

[Do-hyeong] For him, Hong Kong was
a place to run to without a visa.

So he immediately fled to Hong Kong.

[ship's horn blaring]

HONG KONG

This is Hong Kong. Look.

I see something above me that looks like...

- [woman 1] It's a koala.
- [woman 2] Yeah.

- Pretty much like a monkey on a tree.
- [woman 1 laughs] It's a koala climbing.

[Myeong-seok] Those buildings
look like monkeys on a tree. Austria...

BUILDINGS THAT LOOK
LIKE MONKEYS CLIMBING TREES

He basically traveled
to all those different countries,

running from the authorities
until he ran out of pages on his passport.

You can just go to the consulate office
and ask for more pages.

They simply add them to your passport.
That's the usual procedure.

But I guess he was being careful,
since he was a criminal.

Jeong Myeong-seok brought an expensive
crystal gift to the consulate.

They were suspicious. It was a very
expensive gift for such a minor procedure.

When the consular authorities
investigated him,

they discovered
there was a warrant for his arrest.

[man] They checked his background
and found an ongoing legal procedure.

After that, his passport was
probably taken away on the spot.

They said he had to return
to Korea right away,

and gave him a travel certificate.

But Jeong Myeong-seok decided to ran away.

He actually escaped from the consulate.

In October 2002,
a show called Unanswered Questions

made a feature titled "Jeong Myeong-seok's
Overseas Sex Scandals."

Afterwards, ten thousand JMS supporters
gathered in a massive protest.

[Gyeong-cheon] We didn't think,
"They aired that because we are wrong."

PROTEST AGAINST SBS ill*gal COVERAGE
SPECULATIVE BROADCASTING

We just thought,
"The devil's using the media against us."

I even considered
riding in a hot-air balloon

with a gas barrel on my back,

and crashing through the SPS building's
windows to blow myself up.

To stop them.

One of the newspapers published an article
and included a picture of the protesters.

There's a girl right at the front,

and she's seen protesting
very passionately in that picture.

She was someone defending her
president's innocence on the frontline.

But then, three months later,

she traveled to Hong Kong and realized
who Jeong Myeong-seok really was.

[woman 1] At the time, since
Jeong Myeong-seok was out of the country...

[telephone ringing]

...he started calling me all the time
to invite me to come overseas with him.

[woman 2] Getting a phone call
from Jeong Myeong-seok

was considered
a great honor among his followers.

[woman 3] The Hong Kong victims
were sisters.

They were told not to watch
the TV broadcasts,

and if they did,
their salvation would be lost.

And the community
was very strict about it,

so they never saw any news
until after they were assaulted.

FORMER JMS MEMBER

That's when Jeong Myeong-seok
called for them.

Maybe they thought,

"Since we know
the president was falsely accused,

we'll go and experience firsthand
that he's innocent."

"We'll be his witnesses."

HONG KONG

[evocative music]

[footsteps]

[sister 1] They told us
to give him a massage,

because he was feeling very tired.

I remember we were sent
to his room right away.

And Jeong Myeong-seok was
in the middle of his bed.

He spread his arms and told
us to lie on each side of him.

[sister 2] Since the Messiah ordered it,
we couldn't disobey.

So we agreed, although I thought
it was a rather strange request.

After a while, I must've fallen asleep.

[sister 1] I think Jeong Myeong-seok
believed I was sleeping.

- [screaming]
- But I saw him

take off my sister's underwear
in the middle of the night.

I saw him spread my sister's legs
and r*pe her.

[sister 2] He said it was the Lord's will,
so that he... wasn't forcing me.

He said that I wouldn't
be saved if I didn't do it.

[sister 1] That's when I realized
the Exodus website

was reporting nothing but the truth.

I was absolutely horrified.

HONG KONG VICTIM'S STATEMENT
TO THE POLICE IN MARCH 2003

HE TOOK OFF MY SISTER'S UNDERWEAR
IN THE DARK

HE DID SOMETHING WITH HIS HANDS FOR A BIT

THEN HE SPREAD MY SISTER'S LEGS
AND HUMPED HER

I WAS PRETENDING TO BE ASLEEP,
BUT I WAS COMPLETELY SHOCKED

Something horrible she had only heard
about was actually happening to her.

The informants were sleeping
in the next room.

She opened the door, screaming for help,

but the women in the room pretended
to be asleep, like everything was fine.

Nobody woke up and acknowledged them.

And she knew that they were involved.

She feared for her life.

If the informants thought
she considered it to be r*pe,

or suspected anything,

those women could endanger her life.

Both girls were absolutely terrified.

So they stayed there, trying
to pretend they were perfectly fine,

but when they came back,
they called Professor Kim Do-hyeong.

And that's when they
first contacted Exodus.

He is nowhere near a human being.

He was wanted for sexual offenses

and had an open investigation
as a sex offender,

but still called his female followers
from Korea to r*pe them.

A human wouldn't do something like that.

The Hong Kong X-File.

There's so much information,
a really huge amount of it.

While he was hiding in Hong Kong,
he got data and reports through email.

The Internet kept Jeong Myeong-seok alive.

Whoo! Whoo!

[melancholy music]

I was looking for a job after college.

FORMER JMS MEMBER
THE HONG KONG X-FILE INFORMER

Pastor Kim called from Hong Kong,

and he said there was an office
in Hong Kong for Jeong Myeong-seok.

He asked if I wanted to work there,

so I figured I'd go and help the Messiah.

It was a mansion on Kimberley Road
in the Kowloon area of Hong Kong.

When I got there, my job was basically
receiving and sorting out letters for him,

and packages, and luggage from Korea.

Then I sent them to other cities in China,
like Shenzhen.

I didn't know where Jeong Myeong-seok was.

After a while,
it seemed like he was in China.

They told me to open every package
from Korea and check the contents.

There were these storage tubes
for posters, lots of them,

so I opened one to check,

and I found some...

pictures of women posing.

These women were always topless.

Some showed everything.

There were a lot of them,
so I just rolled up a bundle,

and I thought, "What's this?"

One day, they told us to come
get our picture taken.

The informants called
girls from different areas.

So I just got my picture taken.

I took a couple of pictures of me wearing
a cute dress and simply sent them.

[camera shutter clicking]

[woman] They took pictures of me
in my underwear.

I remember feeling that the photo sh**t

was gradually becoming
more and more intense.

They rated you better if you
took all your clothes off.

So if you got fully naked,
you were given an A+

Just like they'd give you an A
if you had sex with Jeong Myeong-seok.

If you wore a something like
a bikini, you would get a B.

Same with a dress.

Back then, Jeong Myeong-seok was sending
out lingerie to the girls,

and swimsuits, too.

He'd say, "Send me a picture wearing
the lingerie, since it was a gift."

So all the women of the community

would take pictures and videos
of themselves for him.

Honey!

[slurps]

This pretty fruit is all for you, my Lord.

Enjoy, my Lord.

[woman] Those videos were to introduce
informants to Jeong Myeong-seok.

They'd film themselves masturbating
and send him the videos.

He told them to send close-ups of
their genitals with their legs together.

[all] I love you! Love you so much!

He couldn't have access
to the women all the time,

so he'd watch those videos,

and if he really liked one of them,

he'd call her and tell her to visit him.

Once she got there, he'd r*pe her.

RECORDING OF A CALL BETWEEN JEONG
AND A FEMALE FOLLOWER IN FEB 2003

- [Myeong-seok] Is it you?
- [woman] Yes, it is.

[Myeong-seok] Hey.

You want to see me, don't you?

[woman] Pardon?

- [Myeong-seok] You want to see me?
- [woman] Of course.

- [Myeong-seok] I saw your picture.
- [woman] Yeah.

[Myeong-seok] They say
you're prettier in person.

[woman] Huh?

[Myeong-seok] They say
you're prettier in person.

[woman] My Lord, thank you!

Excuse me, sir, but do you remember
the beautiful gift you sent me before?

[Myeong-seok] Yes.

[woman] Well, I just wanted to let you
know that I am very grateful, sir.

[Myeong-seok] Well,
you'll see, my sweet girl,

when a man gives you underwear,
it's like you basically owe him your body.

[woman] Really?

[Myeong-seok] It means that I love you
very much, but don't tell anybody.

Since I bought you that underwear,
we're already lovers.

You can come if you want.
What would you like to do here?

[woman] Sorry?

[Myeong-seok] What would you like to do
once we meet?

[woman] I would like to meet you
and say hi.

- [Myeong-seok] And?
- [woman] And listen to your sermons.

[Myeong-seok] There's no time for sermons.
Hurry up.

[woman laughs]

When I looked at those files, I realized
Jeong Myeong-seok was a sex offender.

I concluded I was actually wrong
about him and the entire organization.

After a year or so,
the Hong Kong office closed.

They'd left the country.

I removed the hard disk from the computer.

Around 500 GB.

And I brought it back to Korea.

I wanted the other members
to see the truth,

and hopefully, they'd leave the church.

So I uploaded all of the files
to an online drive

and sent it as backup.

There were so many files,
so much information.

That's why the media called
it the "Hong Kong X-File."

Honestly, I used to look
at Jeong Myeong-seok

and wonder how many women
had passed through this place.

According to a document submitted by
former JMS pastors,

Jeong Myeong-seok said once,

"My goal is to r*pe ten thousand women."

1999, A PETITION FROM SEVEN JMS PASTORS
WHO LEFT THE ORGANIZATION

COLLECTIVELY INDUCED AND ENCOURAGED
UNDER THEIR COOPERATION

HE CLAIMED
AN ORDER FROM THE HEAVENS

[Do-hyeong] I really think...

TO HAVE SEX WITH 10,000 WOMEN
AND MAKE THEM THE LORD'S LOVERS

...that he actually came very close
to achieving his goal.

2003, ENCOUNTER WITH THE PRESIDENT
UNDER THE MOSQUITO NET IN JULY

WANTED: JEONG MYEONG-SEOK
FOR r*pe, SEMI-FORCED HARASSMENT AND FRAUD

[man] During his exile,
additional women stated

that they had been sexually abused
by Mr. Jeong.

Interpol put him on the Red Notice list
of 2003.

We received a report
around June 2003.

[Do-hyeong] It stated that
the female pastors of JMS

were meeting in Hong Kong
with Jeong Myeong-seok.

The police and most of the prosecutors
weren't interested.

But some were.

And that's why some Exodus members
decided to go to Hong Kong.

[man] We were at the airport in Hong Kong
waiting for some of his female followers.

Another team in Korea went to the airport
when the female followers were leaving,

and took zoomed-up pictures
of them with telephoto lenses

to see what they looked like
and how they were dressed.

ACTUAL PHOTOS OF FEMALE JMS PASTORS,
TAKEN AT THE AIRPORT AT THE TIME

But when they arrived...

KIM HYEONG-JIN
CAPTURING SQUAD MEMBER IN HONG KONG

...the female pastors were not wearing
the clothes we thought they'd be.

They were different from
the pictures we received from Korea.

We came awfully close
to losing sight of them.

I bet they changed into pretty dresses
after they landed in Hong Kong

because they were going
to see Jeong Myeong-seok.

When they came out of the airport,
they immediately got into the JMS van.

The vehicles were there waiting for them.

And we started tailing them.

As we were following them,

they went up a mountain road that
was kind of in the middle of nowhere.

They turned a corner as soon as
they reached the mountain ridge,

so we did that too.

Then we found the front yard of the house
where Jeong Myeong-seok was staying.

First, we had to make sure that Jeong
Myeong-seok was actually at the property.

There was a mountain right behind
Jeong Myeong-seok's house,

so we decided to approach the property
from the mountainside,

and we spotted him taking a walk
with his female followers.

While we were staking out the place,

we noticed the lights turned on
on the second floor.

Three women were taking turns

having intercourse
with Jeong Myeong-seok on the bed.

We went back and asked for the cooperation
of the immigration authorities.

The very next day, around ten Hong Kong
immigration officers got on a vehicle

and headed for Clear Water Bay,
where Jeong Myeong-seok was hiding.

[sirens blaring]

[radio chatter]

The immigration officers went in through
the front door to arrest Jeong Myeong-seok

and we went up the mountainside
to block his escape route.

We found this mosquito net that
we hadn't noticed the night before

in which Jeong Myeong-seok was hanging out

with his female followers
wearing swimsuits.

FOOTAGE OF JEONG MYEONG-SEOK'S ARREST
FILMED BY KIM HYEONG-JIN

[Do-hyeong] Don't touch that.
Put on your pants.

Put your on your pants and come out.

- Come out!
- [Myeong-seok] What's comin' out?

[Do-hyeong] Now, as*h*le!

Come out before I k*ll you, you hear me?

[Do-hyeong] Maybe because
Jeong Myeong-seok

was around his female followers
in their swimsuits,

he seemed to have an erection.

He couldn't stand up straight.

I told him to come out.

And then he replied with a sort of lisp,
"What's coming out?"

- Come out!
- What's comin' out?

[Do-hyeong] Come out, you as*h*le.

[Hyeong-jin] I think he wanted to get
rid of the camera I was holding.

He started hitting my camera.

What's this? Why are you filming this?

- Did you just kick me?
- [Do-hyeong] No, calm down.

- [Hyeong-jin] Stop!
- [Do-hyeong] Moron.

- [Myeong-seok] Why are you grabbing me?
- [Hyeong-jin] Stay still, you b*stard.

- [Do-hyeong] I didn't grab you. Never.
- [Myeong-seok] You grabbed me!

[Do-hyeong] No, you're the one
grabbing me. Make sure to film this.

- [Myeong-seok] Stop touching me.
- [Hyeong-jin] You as*h*le.

- [Myeong-seok] Get away!
- [slap]

[Hyeong-jin] After he got slapped,
he crept away,

complaining repeatedly,
"You hit me. You hit me."

[Hyeong-jin] Come here!

- I mean...
- [Do-hyeong] Stop!

The truth is,
I couldn't wrap my head around

the fact we had spent
so much time and effort

trying to catch
such a miserable and pathetic coward.

[Do-hyeong] A Hong Kong newspaper headline
said "Sex-crazed cult leader arrested."

SEX-CRAZED CULT LEADER STIRRING UP CHAOS
IN HONG KONG!

And the covers of the weekly papers read

"The sex-crazed cult leader
was arrested in the field."

SEX-CRAZED CULT LEADER SURROUNDED
IN THE FIELD

[siren blaring]

[woman] Jeong Myeong-seok was arrested,
so we thought that the nightmare was over.

I mean, he had been caught by the police.

[Do-hyeong] We all thought it was only
a matter of time before justice was served

and he was brought back to Korea.

But when Jeong Myeong-seok got arrested...

uh...

...he hired a lawyer, paid a hundred
thousand dollar bail, and was released.

After that, he illegally fled to China
without a passport.

2003, ENCOUNTER WITH THE PRESIDENT
UNDER THE MOSQUITO NET IN JULY

VIDEO OF JEONG MYEONG-SEOK
AFTER HE FLED TO CHINA

Hallelujah.

"Evil people, ingrates and
disloyal people cannot exist."

That's what Jesus said to me.

Do you think you can fight a w*r
without casualties?

"Some killings are necessary."
That's what the Lord said.

I think they were pretty shocked
by the mosquito net incident.

[Myeong-seok] What's this?
Why are you filming this?

- Did you just kick me?
- [Do-hyeong] No, calm down.

- [Hyeong-jin] Stop!
- [Do-hyeong] Moron.

[Myeong-seok] Let go of me!
Why are you grabbing me?

People at JMS probably thought,
"How dare they do that to the Messiah?"

They were absolutely enraged.

Of course they couldn't just sit and watch
the Lord getting "beaten up" like that.

Watching Jeong Myeong-seok getting beaten
was like watching their own parents.

Or even worse. It got bad.

After their indoctrination.
the followers became his loyal subjects.

During his sermons, "There are too many
weeds. The crops can't grow properly."

FOXTAILS CANNOT BE ONE WITH CROPS
BEWARE OF FOXTAILS AND EVIL MEN

FROM JEONG MYEONG-SEOK'S SERMONS
AUGUST 17TH, 2003

He would say things like,
"Now we need to collect the weeds,

tie them and get rid of them."

"Hunt the foxtail weeds
and get rid of them."

"For you to truly help
and assist the Lord...

exterminate Kim Do-hyeong
if it's necessary."

THE ACTUAL HONG KONG X-FILE DOCUMENT

EXTERMINATE ALL THREATS
TO PROTECT THE LORD OF THIS ERA

JEONJU

[Hyeong-jin] When the threats
and intimidation started,

they would call me.

First, the calls came
from the Jeolla-do area.

KIM HYEONG-JIN
THE HONG KONG MOSQUITO NET ARREST SQUAD

Then they started calling from
the payphones near my school.

- That's when I understood...
- [ringing tone]

...that the followers were getting
dangerously close to me.

[ringing tone]

I was living in a small studio apartment.

I lived there before my graduation.

One day, when I came in
through the front door,

the motion sensor light didn't work.

I thought it was probably broken.

So I just walked to the second floor.

But the second motion sensor
light didn't work, either.

At that moment,

somebody ran down the stairs.

The attackers came from this side,

and something flashed in front of me.

[man grunts]

Thankfully, I was holding
my Criminal Procedure Law textbook

I instinctively raised it
to protect myself.

I realized later that it was a steel pipe.

And the attacker was definitely
aiming for my head.

[pipe clangs]

I thought that I might die there,

so I grabbed him
and rolled to the side towards the stairs.

[groaning]

We both ended up on the floor
outside the building.

There was a street lamp
outside the building.

When their faces became
visible with the lights

they scattered and ran off.

It was obviously a planned attack.

EMAIL WRITTEN BY SHIN, A JMS ATTACKER

OH, AND FIVE PEOPLE ON OUR SIDE
ATTACKED A FOX YESTERDAY

THEY'RE GETTING FURIOUS
ON THEIR WEBSITE, IT'S CHAOTIC

YONGIN

I told my parents to be careful.

"Don't walk around
in the dark when it's late."

"I won't be coming home for a while."

"These people are completely insane."

[beep]

I was on a phone call with my father

and I asked him where he was.

He told me he was almost home.

While he was still on the phone,

my father suddenly
started screaming frantically.

"What are you doing?
What on Earth are you doing?"

[beep]

I asked him a couple of times
if he was okay, but he didn't answer.

I didn't know why he was saying that
or who he was talking to.

So I desperately tried to call him back,
but he didn't pick up.

[father] I was beaten in the face
with steel pipes.

They broke some of my facial bones.

My mouth was twisted to the side,
and my eye won't close.

KIM MIN-SEOK, AGE 81

VICTIM OF ATTACK
PROFESSOR KIM DO-HYEONG'S FATHER

It was in the summer,
I was in my car, near my house.

I was having a conversation
on my cellphone.

They appeared in front of my car
and made me stop.

They had these long steel sticks, clubs,
and baseball bats. Things like that.

At first, they hit my car.

- [glass smashing]
- [men grunting]

I asked who they were
and what they were doing.

I remember I was driving
with the window open.

And through that small gap,

they couldn't take a good swing, so they
hit me with the handles of their weapons.

- [blow lands]
- [Min-seok groans]

Sitting in the driver's seat,
my lower body was fine,

but my face and chest got smashed.

I think the attack
didn't last five minutes,

but I don't know for sure
because I was being beaten.

And because of that, I passed out.

[labored breathing]

ACTUAL PHOTO OF MIN-SEOK'S CAR
AFTER THE ATTACK

Then my brother...

ran over to where my father was
and held his face.

But this side of my father's face
felt weird.

He used a towel to take a look.

My father had a hole in his face.

I saw it too,
there was literally a hole in his face.

It was as big as a baseball or a fist.

The doctor said that all the veins
on the left side of his face

had been completely severed,

and that he was a lucky man,
considering those injuries.

My father said, uh...

"If it had not been me,
it would have been my son."

"I'm happy
that it happened to me instead."

That's what he said.

Of course I'm very grateful.

I really thank God
I was attacked instead of my son.

- [Do-hyeong] Just take the white pills.
- [Min-soek] What?

- [Do-hyeong] Just the white pills.
- [Min-seok] Okay.

[Do-hyeong] Don't take the yellow ones
anymore.

[Do-hyeong] For a while
after that incident,

I really regretted

going after Jeong Myeong-seok
for his crimes.

How could a human do something like that?

Even gangsters understand
how precious family is.

[siren wailing]

FOX HUNT PLAN

EVIDENCE CONFISCATED BY THE POLICE
AFTER THE INCIDENT

[Do-hyeong] They wanted
to attack me again.

EAVESDROPPING DEVICE

But they couldn't locate me.

So they attacked my father instead.

We know there were prosecutors
among the JMS followers.

It was easy for them
to get anyone's information.

My family's names,
addresses, phone numbers.

Even their resident registrations
and license plates.

They had that in a notebook
that the police confiscated.

We found out they had even
bugged my parents' entire house.

[elevator bell chimes]

[elevator bell chimes]

[boat horn blares]

CHINA

SEXUAL VIOLENCE VICTIM LEE YUN-JU (ANONYM)
JOINED IN 1992 AT 19

Jeong Myeong-seok told me
that he was staying in China,

and asked me to come see him.

At the time, I knew this girl
in the JMS Beijing office.

We drove for a long time on a dirt road.

It was actually very bumpy,
but still, we kept on driving.

When we got there,
these huge gates opened for us,

and they announced that we had arrived.

We drove in through those gates.

There was a bathhouse in the basement of
the building

that Jeong Myeong-seok was staying in.

He led us downstairs to wash us there.

then took us to the sauna and r*ped us.

The taekwondo incident
happened a week later.

JMS founder Jeong Myeong-seok,

who escaped overseas after accusations
of numerous sexual crimes

has been accused
of also sexually assaulting

several of his female followers in China.

[Kim Ji-eun] In China,
the victims were college students.

They were part of a taekwondo team
doing a demonstration for JMS.

He invited them to China, saying that
they'd be doing a taekwondo demonstration,

basically a performance.

And since he had already
been caught once in Hong Kong,

he was actually being very careful.

KIM, ALLEGED VICTIM

I had no idea.
They didn't tell me anything.

I got on the boat, and I saw
this sign as we were getting off.

We were in Dalian.

[man] After she arrived in Dalian, China,

she managed to figure out her location

using a spoon wrapper
that she took from a restaurant.

She was in Anshan, Liaoning.

ANSHAN, LIAONING

[Kim] It had "Anshan" written on it.

This is the place.

This was the biggest building,

and there were three identical buildings
in the back.

[man] I see. Right.
May I ask where you were assaulted?

[Kim] Right here.

There was a dry sauna in the basement,

and there were a bunch of secret
passageways connecting the place.

That very evening, the victim ended up
getting r*ped so violently

that it could have been prosecuted
as sexual t*rture.

[Kim] Jeong Myeong-seok started
slapping my buttocks and thighs,

then he put the shower hose into my vag*na

with hot water coming out of it,

along with his fingers.

I cried in pain,
but Jeong Myeong-seok told me to be quiet.

STATEMENT FROM THE SEXUAL as*ault VICTIM
A MEMBER OF THE TAEKWONDO TEAM IN CHINA

He yelled at me, saying he'd
"rip up my c**t" if I didn't stay still,

and proceeded to r*pe me.

[Do-hyeong] Jeong Myeong-seok ran away
after the incident in China came to light.

We weren't able to track him
after he fled.

MARCH 2, 2006
SLEDDING WHILE IN HIDING

[cheerful music]

I'm riding this sled
you sent me from Korea.

Before all this snow melts away,
I'm gonna keep enjoying your gift.

[Myeong-seok singing in Korean]

CHRISTMAS PARTY
WHILE JEONG MYEONG-SEOK WAS IN HIDING

[cheering]

He constantly changed his location.

But even in 2006 and 2007,

he kept bringing in women
from other places to have sex with them.

[laughter]

AUGUST 2ND, 2006

Never give up your faith.
Let's conquer the world.

Let's conquer it with love. Understood?

Well, that's all I have for you today.
Bye, everyone.

VIDEO OF SUNDAY SERVICE
WHILE JEONG WAS IN HIDING

Bye.

[phone ringing]

[Do-hyeong] One day we got a phone call.

It was from
the Ministry of State Security of China,

the equivalent of South Korea's
National Intelligence Service.

They called us and they told us

that they needed us to come to China
as soon as possible.

They were planning an event,

a cultural exchange
between China and Korea,

and they thought that Jeong Myeong-seok
would show up there.

[sirens blaring]

[man] While he was being questioned
about his crimes,

he started acting insane
and tried to gain sympathy

in order to escape the questions
of the public security officer.

[muffled yelling]

ALL INTERVIEWS IN THIS DOCUMENTARY
USE REAL TESTIMONIES

TO PROTECT THE SUBJECTS' IDENTITY,
SOME INTERVIEWS HAVE BEEN REENACTED