President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on April 21, 2025
On Monday, August 31, a court in Seoul, South Korea sentenced Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church) leader Han Hak-ja to two years in prison on charges of political bribery, embezzling church funds and making illegal political contributions. And according to The New Republic's Elle Hardy, Hak-ja's legal problems have "raised questions about the dwindling church's continued influence in the Trump administration."
Hak-ja is the widow of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who died in 2012. The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) has long been known for its far-right politics, from defending President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal to allying itself with President Donald Trump. But according to Hardy, Trump's recent favorable comments about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un are complicating the FFWPU/GOP alliance.
"Prosecutors had sought a 13-year sentence, which would have essentially meant life behind bars for the aging leader of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, or FFWPU, formerly known as the Unification Church," Hardy explains in The New Republic. "The sentence was something of a surprise, as the church had expected the court to agree to the prosecutors' request. Han was found guilty of political bribery of former first lady Kim Keon Hee and another conservative politician, with the church apologizing for causing 'big concerns and disappointment to the people' but vowing to appeal Han's conviction."
Hardy continues, "Han, her chief of staff, Won-ju Jeong, and former church deputy Yoon Young-ho were accused of embezzling over $7 million in church funds through false accounting between 2017 and 2025, with investigators seizing a further $26 million in funds hidden in a safe in Han's bedroom. Han was acquitted of these charges, leading to the greatly reduced sentence."
Hardy notes that Hak-ja "embarked on a campaign to convince the Trump administration to intervene on the grounds of Christian persecution" and that her "pleas rest on more than her faith."
"They bring into focus the church's 50-year ties to the Republican Party and the fact that many senior figures in the Trump court — including the president himself — have been lavished with the church's largesse in recent years for appearances at its conferences," according to Hardy. "Moon's fervent anti-communism and seemingly endless pots of money helped the church gain substantial influence during the Cold War across Korea, Japan, Latin America, and the United States."
But Hardy points out that Trump's "recent re-embrace of" North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un "hasn't helped matters for any side."
"The current administration in Seoul feels ever more isolated from its greatest ally, and Korea's powerful conservative Christian right is dismayed that the president is embracing its great foe and the longtime source of its strong military alliance with Washington," Hardy observes. "Last week, Trump further inflamed tensions with a Truth Social post attacking South Korea for refusing to join his war against Iran, noting that he has 'a very good relationship' with Kim Jong Un…. So far, Han's allies in Washington have remained conspicuously quiet — but given their long-standing financial arrangements, that’s unlikely to last long."