Korean sect Shincheonji, which accounts for most of the coronavirus cases in South Korea, has been recruiting unsuspecting students on the streets of Melbourne and Sydney for years.

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Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size When Han Lee returned to Melbourne after four years overseas in 2017, he was eager for friends, connection and a local church. During a Christian event at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, he was pleasantly surprised when a young Korean woman sat next to him, struck up a conversation and invited him to a barbecue the next weekend. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video There, two men invited him to a Bible study group – a couple of two-hour sessions a week, full of engaging interpretations of the Bible that Han hadn't heard before. Within weeks, he found himself in five-hour classes that ran past midnight most nights of the week. "Suddenly you don't have time for your other friends. My family got used to me skipping dinner every night," he said. Only after six months, when he passed a rigorous exam, was Han told he was part of the Korean religious cult Shincheonji.


Last week, Shincheonji and its 245,000 claimed members in South Korea were thrust into the spotlight as the sect became a hotbed of the country's red alert coronavirus outbreak, pushing thousands of members into hiding. About 68 per cent of the country's minimum 3700 confirmed cases have been linked to Shincheonji. The group's iron-fist enforcement of attendance and rules such as the forbidding of face masks have made for highly infectious conditions. Han Lee soon found himself sucked into over 20 hours of Bible classes a week, entranced by the teachings and afraid to miss any. Credit:Justin McManus South Korean Lee Man-Hee, who continues to lead the Christianity offshoot he created in 1984, espouses himself as the immortal, second coming of Jesus. Now, according to British media reports, Lee Man-Hee could face "murder" charges in connection to the 18 coronavirus deaths in South Korea. Authorities have accused the church of deliberately exacerbating the outbreak by failing to provide lists of its worshippers and, thus, interfering with moves to curb the virus' spread. Few Australians are aware that Shincheonji has operated a secretive branch here for several years.


Lee Man-Hee speaking to Australian Shincheonji "graduates" last year, espousing his religion's messianic bible interpretations. Credit:YouTube Shincheonji appears to have hundreds of Australian members at any time with class sizes up to 100. In Melbourne, hidden under deceptive recruiting techniques and teachings that deify its 88-year-old leader, Shincheonji targets, then overwhelms, the lives of unknowing recruits – often Asian international students and those, like Han, with few local connections. Lee Man-Hee appears to have visited Australia last year, appearing in a bizarre YouTube video of Australians completing their six-month "passover" – an official acceptance into Shincheonji. Hundreds of students at their "passover" in Australia last year, where they cheered and applauded speakers including Lee Man-Hee. Credit:YouTube "Shincheonji is life, the source of my strength," a 22-year-old university student from Sydney says in the video. "God and Jesus speak only to our chairman ... now this word has been preached all over the world, even though many people have betrayed our chairman, whom God is with."


In his 40-minute sermon, Lee Man-Hee, wearing a white suit with a yellow tie, congratulates the graduates, interprets Bible verses and damns those who disagree. "When you see these people they are alive and moving, but their hearts are dead," he says. In recent days, Seoul's city government filed a criminal complaint to prosecutors against Lee Man-Hee, himself waiting on the results of a coronavirus test, and 11 other senior members of the church. According to the BBC, the legal complaint accuses the church leaders of homicide, causing harm and violating the Infectious Disease and Control Act. In a Facebook post on Sunday, Seoul's mayor Park Won-soon alleged the church's actions amounted to "murder through to willful negligence". Under South Korean law, a person can be convicted of murder if they foresaw their actions resulting in death, but continued with those actions regardless. Before the shadow of the virus, Shincheonji was most brazenly recruiting individuals on the streets of Melbourne's CBD.


Normally young and from eastern Asia, Shincheonji recruiters move in pairs of "eyes" - like the two men who showed an interest in Han. Earlier this month, seizing on the period when international students are yet to start university, they were seen politely asking people walking alone outside RMIT and Melbourne Central to complete a survey on "how happy you are with your life from one to 10". Lydia, who did not want her last name published, was 19 when a woman from Singapore and a man from Korea approached her at Melbourne Central in 2017. "They asked whether I was interested in going to a multicultural event nearby, with K-pop singing and dancing," Lydia said. "I went, because I had nothing else to do during the summer. Not long after, the girl texted me and asked whether I was interested in joining a Bible study group." In the group, Lydia felt as if every time she spoke with a new class member, one of her recruiters – her "eyes" – would appear and join the conversation. Like Han, she was bombarded with messages any time she skipped a class. Lydia's other friend group in Melbourne was her university Bible study class. Soon, her Singaporean "eye" was telling her those friends weren't to be trusted.

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