Inside the Detention Center: A 10-Minute Visit

A personal account of seeing Mother Han in Seoul Detention Center – and her message: “Tell them that I love them.”

Extracts from a message delivered by Dr. Michael Balcomb, President of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification in Europe and the Middle East, at an internation prayer meeting on Zoom 12th November 2025. Slightly edited. 

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Tuesday [11th Nov.], at last, it was time to visit True Mother.

[…] And I know you’ll be disappointed, but […] I can’t say much about the details of this visit […].

I had prepared a short report for True Mother, which I read in Korean. […]

And Mother kindly responded,

“Wow, your Korean is improving. Please explain well about my situation to all the members of Europe and tell them that I love them.”

[…] Then I can just share a little bit about my impression on meeting True Mother. Frankly, it was pretty shocking.

The first interesting thing was that I was told by the Korean team to wait in the wrong place. So I was waiting down at the detention center prayer tent, and about half an hour went by and I thought, “This might not be right.”

So I called Yeon-a, who told me, “No, you have to go into the detention center.”

And […] I thought, “How can I get in?” But it turns out it’s very easy – show your passport and you walk in. You go into the reception area and show your passport again. You surrender your cell phone and other things, and then you take a number.

And there are 30 visiting rooms at the detention center. They’re all in use all the time – 15 for men, 15 for women. There are a lot of people there waiting to see their loved ones in detention.

In the lobby, I met with Julia, with Shin-chul, and with Shin-heung, and this “brother” that I didn’t really know called Peter Kim, not the Peter Kim who ascended, but Peter Eun-sang Kim who was coordinating the visits to the detention center and also working with True Mother‘s lawyers.

You stand in line and get called, and then you make your way to the interview room.

The interview room is really small. It’s like two and a half meters by two and a half meters.

And then there’s a solid glass wall with bars as well. It’s completely soundproofed.

The person you’ve come to visit is on the other side. And the only communication is through a small microphone on something like an iPad, […] which also gives you a countdown.

You get exactly ten minutes, no more, no less. And it’s not easy in 10 minutes to really convey your heart.

Mother was already waiting there when we came in, but the sound wasn’t switched on.

And because her eyesight is not very good, especially after the medical procedure during her brief release, you know, she was just sitting there impassively waiting for the sound to come on so that we could greet her.

And she looked healthy, but very thoughtful, I will say. It was also, of course, shocking to see her in her prison fatigues, with her number across her chest. This is not how I’m used to seeing True Mother.

Also, there’s a guard there, a female guard, who brought Mother in in her wheelchair.

Anyway, as soon as we started, Shin-chul explained to True Mother who was there, because – actually it’s pretty crowded, and even without visual challenges – to introduce people is important.

And then Mother invited Peter Eun-sang Kim to give a quick report. And his report, which you probably heard about, was that the lawyers – and Mother has a lot of lawyers – have been visiting Gapyeong to try to get a better understanding of who True Parents are, because most of the lawyers are young and they don’t know Mother too well.

And then it was my turn, so I sat down quickly. One of the reasons for speaking in Korean was because of time. If I speak in English and it’s translated, then all the time would be used up. But also I thought,

“At least this is one thing I can do to try to make it easier for True Mother.”

And after that, Shin-heung talked a little bit about his children, True Mother‘s great grandchildren. That was the first time that Mother really smiled.

Even the guard smiled at that point because it was cute. And then there were a few moments left, and Mother said, “Why don’t you all sing me a song?”

Of course, we never sung together before. We glanced at each other and thanks God we did not sing “Country Roads”, but we sang “Top of the World” instead.

We did pretty good, I would say, and we finished with about two seconds to spare. And then the mic went dead, and True Mother was wheeled out. She waved as she went.

But anyway, afterwards we had a little “debrief” back in the reception area. I asked Shin-chul,

“Is that normally how it is? Mother seemed pretty thoughtful and quiet.”

[…] And yes, Shin-chul and Julia both confirmed, “Yes, it was different today.”

Of course, it was Mother‘s first visit since coming back from the hospital. And there is also a pretty busy time is ahead. On 18^th November – six days from now – there’ll be another procedural hearing. And then on December 1st, the actual trial will begin.

Usually those hearings last six months, but apparently, they may try to do it more quickly, but that still means about four months. So there’s a long hard road ahead.

And I think we need to remind ourselves what True Mother has said, which is, “Keep going! Work hard!”

And of course we have to pray hard. But I think the point is there’s no point worrying about things that we can’t change ourselves.

Some people have asked me, “Isn’t it time to be more vociferous and to speak out and challenge what is going on?”

And that might be true, but one thing to bear in mind is that until now, this whole process has been driven by the prosecution team, and they’ve been doing what prosecutors do, but now it’s transitioning to the judges.

There are three pretty senior judges in the Seoul court. And one thing I know about judges from experience in the UK and in America is they don’t like being told what to do or think.

So we definitely want to pray for them. […] We want to pray that God gives them wisdom and insight because this is not a simple case.

And Korea at the moment is rather strange. There’s a lot of activity going on which I don’t really recognize, but I’m not going to speculate it here because you don’t want to hear that.

I think what you want to hear is that Mother is well, yes, she’s well. Her medical procedure went well.

She’s very thoughtful. She has time to think about the people she loves, and that includes us.

She asked me to explain to you the situation as it is. I’ve done that. And she said, “I love you.” I think we all want to see her soon.

Featured image above: Dr. Michael Balcomb outside Seoul Detention Center 7th November 2025. Photo: Michael Balcomb

See also Health Concerns: 82-Year-Old Pretrial Detainee

See also Complaint Filed Against Lead Special Prosecutor

See also In Tiny Solitary Cell: Irreversible Harm Caused

See also Gingrich Pressures Seoul to Free Mother Han (82)

See also Mother Han Briefly Released for Medical Reasons

See also Message of Religious Unity from Detention Cell

See also Over 50 Days in Vigil Outside Detention Center

See also Bail Request Spotlights Injurious Detention

See also Members Giving Strength to Detained Mother Han

See also It Began with One Flower But Became a Big Field

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