by STEVE HAN
Authorities in South Korea are searching the compound of a religious cult seeking the arrest of the three men in charge of the company that operated the ferry that capsized last month and killed more than 300 people. Hundreds of followers of the Evangelical Baptist Church, co-founded by Yoo Byung-un, the head of a family that runs the Chonghaejin Marine shipping company, submitted to a search of their rural commune in Anseong, after initially resisting authorities’ attempts to enter.
Yoo, 73, is wanted on charges of embezzlement, negligence and tax evasion stemming from business holdings related to the Chonghaejin Marine company. Yoo and his two sons, Yoo Dae-kyun and Yoo Hyuk-ki, are currently evading a summons to appear for questioning.
Yoo’s younger son, Hyuk-ki, is believed to be in the U.S. Prosecutors said they were unclear about the whereabouts of Yoo or his eldest son and said that they were probably no longer at the Anseong commune. But investigators are also looking for other evidence at the commune, they said.
“This investigation is about personal wrongdoings on the part of Yoo Byung-un and sons related to the management of Chonghaejin Marine,” Kim Hoe-jong, a senior prosecutor in the case, said in Incheon. “It has nothing to do with religion.”
When the authorities first attempted entering the compound with court warrants, followers stopped them by staging a sit-in at the gate, accusing the government of religious prosecution. They sang hymns as about 1,200 police officers were on site to keep order while helicopters hovered over the Anseong compound.
“We will prove that our dear brother Yoo Byung-un is not an evil man and that he has lived as a role model citizen of this country practicing the love of Jesus Christ,” Lee Tae-jong, a spokesman for the group, said at the compound gate.
Yoo was jailed in the early 1990s after 32 workers of his company linked to the church committed suicide in 1987.
Prosecutors also raided a house in Seoul that’s believed to be Yoo’s, but couldn’t find him or his sons.
The chief executive of a subsidiary of I-One-I, the holding company controlled by Yoo’s sons, was indicted Wednesday on charges of embezzling company funds and channeling it to Yoo family.
The ferry Sewol capsized on April 16 as it was making its way to the Jeju Island from the port of Incheon. It was overloaded with cargo without enough water in the tanks to keep the ship steady.
More than 300 passengers, most of whom were high school students, were trapped in the tilted ferry and died. Some bodies are still missing at sea. The 15 crew members who abandoned the ship face charges ranging from homicide to negligence.
Photo: Yoo Byung-un made a rare public appearance last year as a lecturer at a health forum in Seoul.
