BUSAN, South Korea — “Your pastor is the freest man in Korea,” Rev. Rob McCoy, senior pastor of Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Thousand Oaks, California, told thousands of worshippers at Segero Presbyterian Church in Busan, a port city in South Korea, on Sunday. “He is exercising freedom of religion and standing for truth, regardless of the cost.”
The pastor of slain Christian influencer Charlie Kirk was preaching because Segero’s founder, Rev. Son Hyun-bo, was absent.
Rev. Son, the head of a South Korean Christian activist movement known as “Save Korea,” led rallies against liberal President Lee Jae-myung and was detained Sept. 9 over alleged violations of electoral and related laws.
Rev. McCoy, who mentioned U.S. sacrifices during the 1950-53 Korean War, ended an electrifying sermon by removing his shirt to reveal a white T-shirt underneath emblazoned with one word: “Freedom.”
Worshippers roared.
His intervention comes at a sensitive moment — and not just because Rev. Son met with the American conservative just days before his Sept. 10 assassination in Utah.
Seoul-Washington ties are under pressure. Both are polarized between conservatives and liberals, with presidents from different sides of the aisle in power on different sides of the Pacific.
A June change of administration in Korea unleashed a judicial sweep that has netted persons and organizations allegedly supportive of, or connected to, the prior, conservative president — including Rev. Son.
In Washington, the crackdown on conservatives in South Korea is fueling heated criticism of the Lee administration.
While Rev. McCoy talked about inalienable rights, local residents say matters are vexed. The vortex intermingles issues about firewalls between church and state; a uniquely Korean tradition of revenge politics enabled by powerful prosecutors; and even a 2024 assassination attempt on Mr. Lee.
What’s really happening?
“We are watching our ally in South Korea, which is headed up by basically a pro-communist government, literally and methodically destroying Christianity,” said former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has spoken at religious conferences in South Korea.
“It is an astonishing assault,” he told Fox News last week.
Mr. Gingrich’s outrage follows concerns voiced by President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
On Truth Social, Mr. Trump aired suspicions that a “purge or revolution” was underway in Seoul just before his August summit with Mr. Lee.
Speaking at Mr. Kirk’s memorial, Mr. Rubio confided that the latter had raised concerns to him about matters in Korea just before his murder.
Persons in Korea contend that what is actually underway is a brutal cycle of political revenge that sees post-term presidents suffering legal attack after changes of administration.
“This is something complicated: It is not in the religious freedom sphere, it is in the political sphere,” said pastor Lee Jung-hoon, head of Seoul’s PL Leadership Church, which remains outside politics.
What is widely agreed is that Korean prosecutors are massively empowered to raid, interrogate and detain.
“Prosecutors, whether prodded by the administration or out of their own eagerness, are moving ahead, and they have judicial powers to selectively prosecute,” said Michael Breen, Seoul-based author of “The New Koreans.”
“The nature of the political culture is once a guy is not in power, his supporters are in trouble, the law is applied, and — if bribery or political interference charges won’t stick — they find something.”
Meanwhile, Seoul-Washington tensions are rising.
Tariffs on Korean exports, disagreement over a $350 investment pledge, the arrest of Korean workers by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a Korean factory in Georgia, and questions about the direction of the alliance are raising blood pressure on both sides.
Amid all this, Mr. Lee is being lambasted by U.S. critics speaking to the MAGA movement.
The longtime leftist announced in February his shift toward the center-right, a move that helped him win over South Korean voters. And since taking office in June, he has talked up the U.S. alliance, maintained amicable ties with Japan and skipped Beijing’s World War II commemorations.
However, this week, Seoul permitted visa-free access for Chinese tourists.
“They don’t know anything about South Korea and are really hurting the relationship,” said Choi Jong-kun, of Mr. Lee’s U.S. critics.
“If they keep sabotaging Korea-U.S. relations, who are they helping? Beijing? Pyongyang?” continued Mr. Choi, deputy foreign minister under the last liberal Seoul administration.
“This is a Korean church problem, I think: They have good relations with U.S. conservative groups,” added Rev. Lee, a former law professor at Ulsan University. “I think it’s unhealthy: A pastor is not a lobbyist.”
Deep currents, troubled waters
Mr. Lee won power following the impeachment of conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol, who launched an ill-fated attempt to impose martial law in December.
Mr. Yoon, his wife and multiple aides are in detention, surprising no one familiar with Korean politics.
Since the country was democratized in 1987, one ex-president was sentenced to death, another to life imprisonment. Two saw family members imprisoned for corruption, another committed suicide amid investigations and two were jailed for corruption.
What is unusual today is the targeting of religious organizations that have not previously been in legal gunsights.
Rev. Son’s son Chance says prosecutors acted on a technicality: His father’s “crime” was using a microphone during a rally, he said.
Hak Ja Han, matriarch of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, was detained on Sept. 23 amid allegations that her organization bribed the former first lady.
Ms. Han, 82, suffers from a heart condition and is virtually blind. The federation, previously called the Unification Church, owns a number of businesses, including The Washington Times.
While other pastors have endured raids and interrogations, Kim Chul-hong, who teaches at Seoul’s Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary and is associated with fiery anti-Lee Pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon, admits broad freedoms remain intact.
“Worship is OK,” Mr. Kim said. “Rallies are also OK.”
Rev. Jeon’s anti-Lee followers rally every Saturday in central Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Plaza and hold services there every Sunday, he said.
Mr. Kim believes Mr. Lee’s intent is nefarious.
“No matter how many tariffs the U.S. puts on Korea, the Lee regime does not care, and the more tariffs, the more anti-U.S. sentiment,” said Mr. Kim. “The U.S.-Korea alliance is under a demolition project.”
Some religious figures argue for unity.
“Pastor McCoy reminds Korea that government is not above heaven,” said Demien Dunkley, chairman and president of the federation’s U.S. branch. “He is rallying pastors to stand for truth, regardless of the consequences.”
It is not happening.
About half of Koreans profess religions, broadly divided between Christians and Buddhists. Among Christians, the cleavage is approximately half Catholic, half Protestant.
Neither Catholics nor Buddhists face pressure. Protestants are divided.
Rev. Jeon’s followers massed in Gwanghwamun, Rev. Son’s in Seoul’s Yeouido, near the National Assembly. Mr. Kim and Chance Son separately acknowledged that the two groups remain apart.
Another Protestant believes both crossed firewalls between the divine and the earthly.
Rev. Son’s move into politics “was too much,” reckoned Rev. Lee, though the former legal academic said prosecutors went too far in jailing him: “He can’t defend himself in prison.”
Dark rumors surround Rev. Son.
“For Korea to live, Lee Jae-myung must die,” he told followers — a searing statement given that in Busan in 2024, a would-be assassin stabbed Mr. Lee in the neck.
Investigations found the assailant acted alone, but rumors persist that he was aided by Rev. Son’s followers.
Chance Son disagrees. He said his father’s quote was taken out of context and dismissed rumors as “lies spread by leftists.”
• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.