SEOUL: With the number of coronavirus cases skyrocketing in South Korea in the past week, a local fringe Christian sect has been blamed for the growing outbreak.
As of Wednesday, a total of 1,261 people had tested positive with 12 deaths reported. Just a week ago, the number of infected persons stood at 50. However, South Korea has seen by far the highest number of the Covid-19 cases outside China.
Health authorities believe the Shincheonji Church of Jesus is at the heart of the alarming spread of the pandemic, as more than half of the confirmed cases have been found to be linked to the religious sect, which is widely regarded as a cult.
“The mass infections came after Shincheonji followers took part in the Feb. 16 service and had frequent contacts around that time,” Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korean Center for Disease Control (KCDC), told reporters on Wednesday.
Most of the confirmed cases are in the city of Daegu, about 300 km southeast of Seoul, where large services for Shincheonji members were held on Feb. 16. Thousands of worshippers are believed to have attended, authorities said.
The other cluster of infections is a hospital in Cheongdo, a neighboring county of Daegu. Shincheonji members are also known to have visited the hospital, according to the KCDC officials.
Officially called the Shincheonji Church of Jesus the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony, the group was founded in 1984 and claims to have around 240,000 followers worldwide.
Shincheonji followers are taught to believe that Lee Man-hee, the founder of the organization, is the second coming or the returned Christ. The church claims the Bible is written in metaphors which only its founder can correctly interpret.
Critics say the group’s secretive nature and the manner in which it worships could have lead to the fast spread of the virus.
“They hold services sitting packed together on the floor and kneel very close to one another,” Shin Hyun-uk, director of the Guri Cult Counseling Center, said.
Shin was a member of the cult for 20 years until 2006 and has been leading a campaign to extract members from the church ever since he realized that “the group was not a normal religion.”
Shin said the Shincheonji churchgoers shout out “amen” at the top of their lungs “after every sentence the pastor utters.”
“While holding services, worshippers send respiratory droplets flying everywhere, causing the virus to be transmitted easily,” he said.
Most members of the church hide their membership, which means the virus goes undetected, Sin warned.
“Few families of the Shincheonji members know their sons, daughters, wives, husbands and parents were taken in the cult religion. I guess only 20 to 30 percent of the family members of the Shincheonji worshippers would recognize it,” he said. “That’s the key reason health officials have difficulty in tracking and curbing the virus being transmitted from worshippers to others.”
A 61-year-old female member of the sect tested positive for the virus last week, but initially refused to be transferred to a hospital so as not to reveal the fact that she had attended Shincheonji gatherings.
A Daegu health official responsible for quarantine also revealed he is a Shincheonji member after being tested positive.
Critics say uncovering the identities of Shincheonji members will be difficult since the group conceals the names of politicians, public officials and other celebrities.
Amid growing public anger at the sect, the group said at the weekend that it will fully cooperate with government investigations.
On Tuesday, officials broke into the group’s headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, to discover a full list of members for quarantine measures.
The government said it has secured a list of 212,000 Shincheonji worshippers and will begin conducting coronavirus tests on those who have respiratory symptoms.
Over 800,000 people have signed an online petition since Saturday after it was filed on the website of the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae.
Authorities are looking into how the disease was first transmitted to the group. More than 9,000 Shincheonji worshippers have been put under quarantine.
The Seoul government has been scrambling to contain growing expressions of public anger.
As of Wednesday morning, over 400,000 South Koreans had signed an online petition calling for President Moon Jae-in to be impeached.
Petitioners say Moon failed to halt entry to visitors from all parts of China, only prohibiting the entry of foreigners from China’s Hubei province, where Wuhan, the center of the outbreak, is located.
Meanwhile, the US Forces Korea (USFK) reported on Tuesday that it had detected the first infection in one of its troops. The 23-year-old soldier is stationed at Camp Carroll, near Daegu, but has been quarantined at his home off base, according to the command. The development came a day after a widow of a retired US soldier living in Daegu contracted the virus.
“KCDC and USFK health professionals are actively conducting contact tracing to determine whether any others may have been exposed,” the USFK said in a news release Feb. 25.
“USFK is implementing all appropriate control measures to help control the spread of Covid-19 and remains at risk level ‘high’ for USFK peninsula-wide as a prudent measure to protect the force,” it said.
More countries, including Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore, have started to impose bans on South Korean travelers because of the virus outbreak.
South Korean ‘cult’ blamed for spike in coronavirus cases
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South Korean ‘cult’ blamed for spike in coronavirus cases
- Critics say the group’s secretive nature and the manner in which it worships could have lead to the fast spread of the virus
- Most of the confirmed cases are in the city of Daegu, about 300 km southeast of Seoul, where large services for Shincheonji members were held on Feb. 16
Spain royals to visit flood epicenter after chaotic trip: media
CHIVA, Spain: Spain’s royals will make a highly anticipated return to the epicenter of catastrophic floods on Tuesday after a chaotic trip where survivors hurled mud and insults at them, local media said.
The European country is reeling from the October 29 disaster that has killed 227 people and sparked widespread fury at the governing class for their perceived mishandling of the crisis.
That outrage boiled over in the ground-zero town of Paiporta in the eastern Valencia region when King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visited on November 3, in extraordinary scenes that stunned the world.
Furious residents chanting “murderers” pelted them with mud and projectiles as they struggled to wade through the crowds, while Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was hastily evacuated.
The monarchs have since pledged to return to the Valencia region after another trip to the devastated town of Chiva was canceled that day.
The royal palace told AFP it would give details later Tuesday for the visit.
Felipe and Letizia are returning to keep their promise and console survivors in Chiva where the floods ripped away lives and homes, said Vicente Garrido, professor of constitutional law at the University of Valencia.
Residents will be more welcoming on this occasion because “minds are calmer” despite “the enormous pain,” and royal visits are “an honor” for any town, he told AFP.
Public anger
Whereas Sanchez and the Valencia region’s leader Carlos Mazon left early last time, the mud-spattered royal couple braved the popular anger to speak with victims.
That gesture was “viewed very positively by everyone” and will afford them “a reception befitting who they are” this week, said Garrido.
Their willingness to travel and risk personal harm earlier this month “strengthens the image” of the monarchy, Garrido said.
Popular ire has instead targeted elected politicians, particularly Mazon because the regions manage the response to natural disasters in Spain’s decentralized state.
Local authorities in many cases warned residents of the impending catastrophe too late and stricken towns depended on volunteers for essential supplies for days in the absence of the state.
The conservative Mazon admitted “mistakes” and apologized in the regional parliament on Friday but refused to resign and vowed to lead Valencia’s gigantic reconstruction effort.
Sanchez is due to appear in parliament this month to explain the left-wing central government’s handling of the floods.
UK and India to resume stalled free trade talks
- The two countries have spent nearly three years negotiating what would be a milestone for Britain as it continues to seek alternative markets
London: Britain and India will resume stalled talks to agree a free-trade deal, the two countries said after their leaders met at the G20 summit in Brazil.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who took power in London in July, hailed his meeting with Indian counterpart Narendra Modi as “very productive” and vowed that a trade pact with Delhi would boost UK growth.
“A new trade deal will support jobs and prosperity in the UK — and represent a step forward in our mission to deliver growth and opportunity across the country,” he posted on X late Monday.
Hours earlier, Starmer’s office confirmed the two countries would relaunch the talks “in the new year” as Britain sought “a new strategic partnership with India.”
That will include “deepening cooperation in areas like security, education, technology, and climate change,” Downing Street said in a statement summarising the meeting of the two leaders.
India’s foreign ministry said both leaders had “underlined the importance of resuming the Free Trade Agreement negotiations at an early date.”
It added they had “expressed confidence in the ability of the negotiating teams, to address the remaining issues to mutual satisfaction, leading to a balanced, mutually beneficial and forward looking Free Trade Agreement.”
The two countries have spent nearly three years negotiating what would be a milestone for Britain as it continues to seek alternative markets after its departure from the European Union.
UK and India to resume stalled free trade talks
The previous Conservative government, ousted by Starmer’s Labour party in July, had hit several roadblocks in its talks with Delhi over the trade pact.
In exchange for lowering tariffs on British imports such as whisky, India has pushed for more UK work and study visas for its citizens.
But Starmer’s Downing Street predecessor, Rishi Sunak, took an increasingly tough stance on immigration during his 20-month tenure as he faced a backlash over record migration levels in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
His government unveiled a raft of measures in late 2023 aimed at curbing the numbers.
Starmer has prioritized kickstarting anaemic UK economic growth but his administration is also under pressure on the contentious issue.
Britain has secured a number of post-Brexit trade deals, including with Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, and is set to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) next month.
But a much sought-after trade deal with the United States remains elusive, and striking a deal Canada also faltered earlier this year.
Germany sees damaging of Baltic Sea cables as act of sabotage, minister says
The damaging of two undersea fiber-optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea must be seen as an act of sabotage, although it is still unclear who is responsible, German Defense minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday.
“No one believes that these cables were cut accidentally. I also don’t want to believe in versions that these were anchors that accidentally caused damage over these cables,” Pistorius said before a meeting with EU defense ministers in Brussels.
“Therefore we have to state, without knowing specifically who it came from, that it is a ‘hybrid’ action. And we also have to assume, without knowing it yet, that it is sabotage.”
Kyiv urges ‘decisive action’ after report on banned chemical weapons
Kyiv: Kyiv on Tuesday blamed Russia and urged action after the international chemical weapons watchdog said banned riot control gas had been found in Ukrainian soil samples from the front line.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of using chemical weapons in the conflict, with Kyiv’s Western allies claiming Moscow has employed banned weapons.
“We call on our partners to take decisive action to stop the aggressor and bring those responsible for crimes to justice. True peace can only be achieved through strength, not appeasement,” the foreign ministry said.
“Russia’s use of banned chemicals on the battlefield once again demonstrates Russia’s chronic disregard for international law,” a statement added.
Russia is yet to react to the report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which brought the first confirmation of the use of riot control gas in areas where active fighting is taking place in Ukraine.
The OPCW’s Chemical Weapons Convention strictly bans the use of riot control agents including CS, a type of tear gas, outside riot control situations when it is used as “a method of warfare.”
CS gas is non-lethal but causes sensory irritation including to the lungs, skin and eyes.
The evidence handed over by Ukraine to the OPCW enabled it to “corroborate... the chain of custody of the three samples collected from a trench in Ukraine located along the confrontation lines with the opposing troops, had been maintained,” the organization said.
It stressed however that the report did “not seek to identify the source or origin of the toxic chemical.”
OPCW director-general Fernando Arias “expressed grave concern” over the findings.
“All 193 OPCW Member States, including the Russian Federation and Ukraine, have committed never to develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, transfer or use chemical weapons,” he said in a statement.
India to send 5,000 extra troops to quell Manipur unrest
- Fresh periodic clashes of troubled state located in country’s northeast have killed 16 people so far
- Manipur rocked by clashes since 18 months between Hindu majority and Christian Kuki community
NEW DELHI: India will deploy an extra 5,000 paramilitary troops to quell unrest in Manipur, authorities said Tuesday, a week after 16 people were killed in fresh clashes in the troubled state.
Manipur in India’s northeast has been rocked by periodic clashes for more than 18 months between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community, dividing the state into ethnic enclaves.
Ten Kuki militants were killed when they attempted to assault police last week, prompting the apparent reprisal killing of six Meitei civilians, whose bodies were found in Jiribam district days later.
New Delhi has “ordered 50 additional companies of paramilitary forces to go to Manipur,” a government source in New Delhi with knowledge of the matter told AFP on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak with media.
Each company of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), a paramilitary unit overseen by the home ministry and responsible for internal security, has 100 troops.
The Business Standard newspaper reported that the additional forces would be deployed in the state by the end of the week.
India already has thousands of troops attempting to keep the peace in the conflict that has killed at least 200 people since it began 18 months ago.
Manipur has been subject to periodic Internet shutdowns and curfews since the violence began last year.
Both were reimposed in the state capital Imphal on Saturday after the discovery of the six bodies prompted violent protests by the Meitei community.
The ethnic strife has also displaced tens of thousands of people in the state, which borders war-torn Myanmar. Incensed crowds in the city had attempted to storm the homes of several local politicians.
Local media reports said several homes of lawmakers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which governs the state, were damaged in arson attacks during the unrest.
Long-standing tensions between the Meitei and Kuki communities revolve around competition for land and jobs. Rights groups have accused local leaders of exacerbating ethnic divisions for political gain.
