Various news articles from the 1970s I've seen assert that Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church was a creation of the Korean CIA. Where did the US congressional committee that made this claim get their evidence & how did S. Korea's neighbors (esp. Japan) react?

by screwyoushadowban

... especially given the Japanese government and public's sometimes rocky perception of the Unification Church (sometimes being labeled a "cult" or "cult-like") and its fund-raising behaviors.

What was the evidence available at the time that the Unification Church was a Korean CIA creation? What would the Korean CIA have meant to accomplish by founding a heterodox Christian Church? More broadly, what's the history of the South Korean intelligence establishment's activities in countries like Japan and the United States (where, along with South Korea, most of the church's members live)?

Thanks!

postal-history

Hi, this is a very complicated story but I've attempted to answer it in this thread: What is the history of the Unification Church in Japan and how involved has it been in Japanese politics?. Basically, working from primary sources, I believe this story is dubious, but there are not enough historians working on the question.