Anchor: Police on Wednesday questioned Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja as part of their rapidly expanding probe into a political funding scandal implicating a wide net of politicians from both sides of the aisle. In addition to securing Han’s testimony, police will analyze materials they seized earlier this week from the Unification Church's headquarters and from nine other locations to uncover the truth.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.

Report: A National Police Agency team visited the Seoul Detention Center on Wednesday morning to grill Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja, who is currently detained on charges of bribery and violation of the Political Funds Act.

Wednesday marked Han's first interrogation since she was named a suspect in a wide-ranging political gift scandal.

Police believe the church provided tens of millions of won in cash and luxury watches to former Oceans Minister Chun Jae-soo, former ruling Democratic Party(DP) Rep. Lim Jong-seong and former main opposition People Power Party(PPP) Rep. Kim Gyu-hwan between 2018 and 2020.

The police suspect that Han ordered the deliveries because former church second-in-command Yun Young-ho testified before the special counsel team assigned to former first lady Kim Keon-hee that he had made them on Han’s orders.

Aside from questioning Han about the cash and luxury watches, police likely grilled her about whether 28 billion won, or around 19 million U.S. dollars, found in her personal safe, had been used to lobby politicians.

Police seized the cash, along with the church’s accounting records, during a raid of ten locations linked to the church on Monday.

Police will use the documents to trace the flow of funds and identify any money or gifts that may have been used for lobbying.

Once they finish analyzing other seized material, including cell phone records, investigators plan to summon related figures for questioning.

As for the complaint the main opposition People Power Party filed against the special counsel team handling Kim Keon-hee's case, the police said they had transferred the case to the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials on Tuesday.

In its complaint, the PPP said the probe team had committed dereliction of duty by failing to properly investigate the political gift scandal.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.