Unification Church car company in North Korea makes profit

Image via Wikipedia

An advertising board for Pyeonghwa Motors in Pyongyang


From www.nasdaq.com (July 15)

"A South Korean auto company operating in impoverished North Korea has made a profit for the first time since it opened there 11 years ago, officials said Wednesday. Pyonghwa Motors, owned by the Unification Church, said it posted a net profit of $700,000 last year."

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Pyeonghwa is the Korean word for peace

See also

• This long article in North Korean Economy Watch
  
• Pyeonghwa Sells in North Korea - Wall Street Journal
• Wikipedia article about Pyeonghwa Motors
• Pyeonghwa Motors website (Korean language)
  

Libertarian Party members UK raise questions about the Universal Peace Federation

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Libertarian Party UK leader Ian Parker-Joseph spoke about monetary reform in the House of Lords last Monday at a conference organized jointly by Global Vision 2000 and the Universal Peace Federation UK. His speech was generally well received but got objection from the Universal Peace Federation.

Members of the Libertarian Party UK, who apparently were only partly aware of the identity of the Univeral Peace Federation, later discussed the discrepancies between Libertarian thought and Unificationists views in this blog.

The writer of this blog summarized the position of Global Vision 2000:

"Global Vision 2000 aims to rise to the challenge by seeking answers to pressing questions such as
• Who really runs the country, the world? Is it our democratically elected governments or unelected banking and financial oligarchs?
• Who really creates and controls credit and the money supply? Is it central banks or private banks?
• Why is usury taken for granted despite the fact that everyone is drowning in debt?
• Do we need to go beyond framing the debate in terms of regulation and reform and advocate rejection of the status quo?
• Why have our institutions, from the government, to political parties, to the media, to the unions been emasculated, and what are the new mediums for social and political transformation and new models of governance?
• Does the Bretton Woods global financial architecture and the military-industrial complex need to be dismantled?"

According to the author of this blog, Global Vision 2000 are pan-islamists with a broadly libertarian view. These views don't seem very much in alignment with those of the Universal Peace Federation.

Why did the UPF and Global Vision 2000 cooperate in organizing this conference?

The writer of the Libertarian Party members blog, answering this question, put it this way:

"As for the event: inter-faith dialogue. Or trying to form a cartel in other words; but they really don't seem compatible. No doubt they'll find some things they can agree upon: such as the stoning to death of sinners. "

See also

• Website of the Libertarian Party UK
• Wikipedia article - The United Kingdom Libertarian Party was founded on 1 January 2008

Japan Unification Church offers prayers to stop abductions

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UPIAsia.com reported yesterday:

Tokyo, Japan — In the early summer heat, some 500 people gathered in a public park located within the government quarters of Tokyo last week, to offer quiet prayers for freedom of faith in Japan.

At this outdoor meeting, chairman of its organizing committee and president of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity in Japan, Rev. Eiji Tokuno, pointed out, "Over the past 40 years, more than 4,000 followers of our church were abducted and/or detained" by their relatives in order to change the members' minds.

The church bases the number on its own statistics. But a dozen books have recorded victims' accounts of how they were kidnapped, detained and deprogrammed by Christian pastors, professional deprogrammers and lawyers who were hired by the victims' kin, including their own parents.

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Unification Church head of Japan steps down after scandal

Image by Jason Michael via Flickr

Hanko, Japanese signature of 1258

The Japan Times reports today:

"The head of the Unification Church said Monday he will resign after some church members were arrested and indicted for allegedly selling expensive personal "hanko" seals by telling people they would suffer bad fortune if they did not buy them."

"Gentaro Kajikuri, a 72-year-old executive member of the church, will succeed him, Tokuno said."

In Japan hanko tends to refer to seals used in less important documents. According to this Wikipedia article:

"A Seal, in an East Asian context, is a general name for printing stamps and impressions thereof that are used in lieu of signatures in personal documents, office paperwork, contracts, art, or any item requiring acknowledgment or authorship."

Read more here

Robert A. Schuller purchases Unification Church AmericanLife Network

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Entertainment News reports:

Robert A. Schuller, the minister who formerly co-hosted the weekly show “The Hour of Power,” is part of the team that has acquired the independent AmericanLife TV Network in an effort to change the face of “family friendly” programing. ALN, formerly owned by the Unification Church, has more than 12.7 million cable subscribers and a library of 700-plus hours of programing.

Read more here

Robert A. Schuller has appeared in this video endorsing the Universal Peace Federation of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Other related news articles

• Robert Schuller taps his daughter to lead ministry's grand comeback - Los Angeles Times - June 22, 2009

• The making of a mega-ministry - Los Angeles Times - June 22, 2009

• Change of guard at the Crystal Cathedral - abc7.com - June 24, 2009

• Robert Schuller's daughter hopes to salvage the Crystal Cathedral - Kansas City Star - Jul 3, 2009

The Crystal Cathedral of Robert Schuller, father of Robert A. Schuller

Video: Recent activities of the Universal Peace Federation

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The video lower down was posted on April 13, 2009 and lists some recent activities of the Universal Peace Federation. The video shows as a who's who of worldwide politicians attending to Moon's organization.
Don't these people realize they are submitting them to a new 'king of the world?' He may bring peace allright but what about those who don't want to bow down for him?
Rev. Moon himself made friendwhip with the Kim Il Sung, the late Korean dictator. Rev. Moon brought much money to North Korea, a nation that now is threatening the West with its secretly built nuclear arsenal. Is that the kind of peace we are wishing?









Sun Myung Moon meets Kim Il Sung in 1991
Screenshot from
http://www.reverendsunmyungmoon.org/life_biography.html


According to this article on Consortiumnews "The Rev. Sun Myung Moon's business empire, which includes the conservative Washington Times, paid millions of dollars to North Korea's communist leaders in the early 1990s when the hard-line government needed foreign currency to finance its weapons programs, according to U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency documents."




Go to the video on YouTube

See also

• North Korea's Other Crisis: An Economy in Tatters (time.com)
• Could North Korea Provoke a New Korean War? (time.com)