S. Korea: Federation Pledges Reform After Apology

In statement to South Korean media 11th Dec. 2025, Family Federation admits oversight failures, vows political neutrality and transparency

A statement in Korean issued by the Family Federation in South Korea to the Korean media on 11th December 2025. Many national media outlets commented on the press release and quoted from it. Translated from the text on the Korean language website of the Family Federation.

Statement by the Korean Branch of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification on Apology and Reform Plan

We offer our deepest apologies to the people of this nation for the great disappointment and concern we have caused.

1)Despite our respect for the constitutional order, we failed to prevent individual misconduct.

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The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification in Korea has been educated to clearly uphold and respect the principles of democracy, the rule of law, and the separation of religion and state as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Korea, and we are a faith community that abides by these principles. We believe that the moment religion colludes with political power to pursue its own interests, it loses its essential nature. This has been an immutable core value that we have upheld for more than 70 years under the teachings of our founders.

Our religious organization has never, at the institutional level, had any plan or intention to collude with political power or to gain benefits by supporting a specific political party. What the Family Federation genuinely seeks is harmony within the family, society, nation, and humanity ‒ an objective that is unrelated to supporting or opposing any particular political party.

Nevertheless, we failed to properly manage and supervise our organization to ensure that these principles functioned effectively in actual operations.

The actions of former Headquarters Director Yoon Yeong-ho, which recently caused public controversy through his courtroom testimony, were an individual’s unilateral and aberrant conduct. However, it is unquestionably the responsibility of the organization that such misconduct was not detected and prevented in advance.

As a result of this incident, the trust built over more than 70 years has been damaged, and most of all, we have deeply disappointed the people of this nation.

2) We deeply acknowledge our responsibility for inadequate internal management.
Through this incident, our Federation has painfully recognized that our internal systems and management mechanisms for detecting and controlling misconduct within the organization were severely insufficient

Due to management failures at the global headquarters level of the Family Federation, the values of our teachings that have been upheld for more than 70 years have been undermined, and the faith and dedication of millions of believers around the world have been unjustly denigrated.

Most importantly, we solemnly acknowledge that we have caused disappointment and distrust among the public.

3) We will undertake fundamental reforms to restore trust.
Taking this incident as a painful lesson, the Korean Family Federation will place “the restoration of trust with Korean society and the recovery of public accountability” as the highest priority in the governance of our religious organization. To this end, we promise the public the following courses of action:

■ First, we will strictly uphold political neutrality.
We will clearly declare organizational political neutrality and institutionalize regulations that operate a transparency verification system involving external experts, thereby fundamentally and systematically blocking any possibility of political intervention.

■ Second, we will establish financial transparency and a sound governance structure.
We will address the absence of internal oversight systems, which was the root cause of this incident, and dramatically strengthen monitoring mechanisms. We will entrust accounting audits to independent external institutions and introduce independent audit systems for key organizations to ensure transparency.

■ Third, we will place public interest and social responsibility as the highest values in organizational governance.
As a member of Korean society, we will further expand the scale of our social contribution activities in order to regain public trust, and we will thoroughly implement compliance education and strengthen ethical guidelines.

Dear citizens,

Our Family Federation will faithfully fulfill its social responsibilities.

Under the Constitution of the Republic of Korea, we are members of Korean society who have raised our children on this land, helped our neighbors, and lived our lives together with the broader community. Countless ordinary believers have quietly continued their lives of faith here.

We will make every possible effort to ensure that this incident does not lead to a situation in which even the conscience and lives of individual believers who have lived sincerely in this country are denied. [See editor’s note below]

We will respond with concrete changes and actions so that we may be reborn as a faith community trusted by the people.

Once again, we sincerely apologize for causing social concern and anxiety.

Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, Korean branch

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Featured image above: Rev. Song Yong-cheon reading the Family Federation statement on 11th December 2025. Screenshot from video by FFWPU.

[Editor’s note: The expression “the conscience and lives of individual believers are denied“, is typical in formal apologies. “Denying conscience” (양심이 부정당하다) in this context, 양심 (conscience) refers to a person’s moral integrity, sincerity of belief, ethical self-understanding as a law-abiding, good-faith citizen. To say that someone’s conscience is “denied” means their good faith and moral intentions are questioned or dismissed, they are collectively portrayed as immoral, deceitful, or culpable because of actions they did not personally commit, their personal sense of right and wrong is socially invalidated. It does not mean loss of inner conscience, but rather public negation of moral legitimacy.

Here, in the expression “denying lives” (삶이 부정당하다), 삶 (life) does not refer to biological life. It refers to one’s lived life as a citizen, one’s everyday existence: work, family, social relationships, reputation, the accumulated effort of living “sincerely” over time.

To say a person’s life is “denied” means their entire life history is reduced to or judged by a single affiliation, their social identity is stigmatized or delegitimized, and they face social exclusion, discrimination, or reputational harm.

When combined, the phrase means that individual believers may be unfairly judged as morally suspect. Their personal dignity, sincerity, and social legitimacy may be undermined. They may suffer collective blame for actions of others.]

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