Song Young-gil says Shincheonji mass membership confirmed, calls for full probe

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Song Young-gil said Monday that evidence of organized mass membership by Shincheonji church members had been confirmed, and urged the party to launch a comprehensive investigation and take strict action under its charter and bylaws.

Song made the remarks after reviewing the results of an internal party investigation into the Shincheonji matter at the Democratic Party secretary-general's office at the National Assembly. "This issue must not be reduced to a blame game between factions," Song said. "What we must confront is organized infiltration under the guise of religion and illegal political interference."

Under the party's policy of allowing individual lawmakers to review the investigation results on a confidential basis, National Assembly members may examine the findings from Nov. 6 to Nov. 13. According to the investigation, approximately 8,800 of about 14,000 rights-holding party members flagged in the probe are believed to be Shincheonji followers.

Song called on party leadership to verify the scope of the membership list and the investigation findings, and to launch a full probe of those requiring further scrutiny. "If the criteria for emergency disciplinary action are met, the party must invoke its emergency disciplinary powers," Song said.

Song also urged revisions to the Political Parties Act and the Democratic Party's own charter and bylaws. "The ruling and opposition parties should jointly discuss amendments to the Political Parties Act and related laws, and the Democratic Party should lead by adding provisions to its charter to protect the party's autonomy and democratic decision-making," Song said. "Joining the party or exercising membership rights through undue direction and control, coercion and threats, or financial inducements from outside organizations must be prohibited."

Song added that the process of uncovering the truth must not itself become a source of further division. "Unity is not about covering up the truth — it is about facing the truth together, sharing responsibility for it, and moving toward a greater democracy," Song said.

Asked about claims by allies of Democratic Party lawmaker Jung Chung-rae that the number of Shincheonji members was not significant, Song pushed back. "Looking at this investigation, it is very clearly confirmed that they infiltrated in an organized manner and that a substantial number have joined," Song said. He added that the probe had been conducted against a list of 100,000 members, and that if the ratio were applied to a list of 300,000, the figure would need to be multiplied by three.

Song acknowledged that some might view the numbers as insignificant compared with the party's roughly 1.5 million rights-holding members, but cautioned against complacency. "This is a powerful religious group with the mobilization capacity to fill a large public stadium with 100,000 people on command," Song said. "To say it is no big deal for such a powerful organization to systematically interfere in polling is far too naive a judgment."