They came to know “Reverend” Shin Ok-ju in 2013, when a family member recommended watching her on YouTube. Her sermons contained much that Mr. Kim had not heard during the more than ten years he was attending “A” Presbyterian Church in his rural area. His ears were filled with her words.
From her pulpit, Ms. Shin warned that a great famine was coming. And she declared that in the days of distress, Fiji was the final and only place people would be able to survive.
Believers in the countryside began selling their property and flocking to Gwacheon. Mr. Kim also put his business in order, and in 2014 got a room in Juam-dong, Gwacheon, paying monthly rent. He was ready to head for Fiji as soon as the order came from Ms. Shin.
In February 2015 the command came: Go to Fiji. He signed a memorandum promising to take complete legal responsibility for any incident that might arise, and boarded a plane to Fiji with his family.
(*Top photo: This photo, provided by a victim, shows the farm in Nabua, Fiji, in 2016. The members of Shin's group harvest rice amid bushy weeds.)
From the start, anticipating end times, he was able to endure the arduous labor. But as more and more believers arrived in Fiji, the team leader received orders to monitor and report on the team members. They began keeping watch on each other.
With 130 some persons looking after a land area of 4,300,000㎡ (1,3 million pyeong), 15-hour work days were natural. During a whole year there were no regular holidays or vacations. The women worked at facilities operated by the Shin Ok-ju group, such as restaurants (Grace Road Kitchen, I Love Sushi), chicken shops (Grace Road Chicken), hamburger shops (Pure Green), pizza shops (Sunny Pizza), cosmetics shops and beauty shops. There were more than 60 such businesses in the Suva, Nadi and Lautoka areas alone. And they paid no labor costs whatever.
Ms. Shin propagandized that the believers’ hard labor was payment for their sins. She rationalized their unpaid labor with the dictum, “You must give your body as a living sacrifice for God’s kingdom.”
Mr. Kim luckily was recognized for his farming skills and, unlike the other members, could use a truck. Everyone’s passport had been taken by the church management group for “security” reasons. One day in May 2015, Kim used his lunch hour to go to the Korean Embassy in Fiji. “I want to go back to Korea,” he stated. Consequently he was issued a temporary travel certificate and successfully escaped from “hell.”
When I met him on August 2, Mr. Kim was wearing an “SOS bracelet” (photo below) provided to him by the police. In the event of an emergency situation such as a terrorist act by the Shin Ok-ju group, he can push a button on the bracelet and signal the police automatically.
Thinking of his past life in the legitimate church, I asked, “Shouldn’t you go back to a healthy church?” His face contorted. “Just hearing the word ‘church’ is repulsive. I don’t want to even think about religion.”
Article and photo by reporter Paek Sang-hyun (100sh@kmib.co.kr), with Marion Kim (marionkkim@icloud.com)
Original Article in Korean:
[단독] 휴일 없이 ‘막노동 무임금’… 그곳은 지옥이었다: [피지 탈출 피해자가 밝힌 신옥주집단의 실체] <상> 이단에 속아 머나먼 피지로
Related Article:
Eunhyero Church’s Shin Ok-ju Arrested: Suspected of Confining and Assaulting Members in Fiji
