Reverend Jeon Gwang-hoon, who had been detained on charges of inciting the riot at the Seoul Western District Court and was later released on bail, returned to the pulpit, attacked the media, and demanded that his followers make a special offering of 1,000,000 KRW (approximately $750). He singled out JTBC with the insult “you bastards” and warned that he would sue MBC and other outlets if they clipped or stitched his remarks into reports. When critics questioned whether it was appropriate for him to attend sermons and rallies while on bail, he accused the press of simply editing his sermons into clips and hurled derogatory language at reporters. JTBC's anchor criticized Jeon, who had claimed he was in very poor health, for attending the service and unleashing a stream of insults and political rhetoric.
On April 19, at the “1.2 Million Gwanghwamun Nationwide Sunday Joint Service for Free Unification,” he delivered remarks and presented a video sermon filled with profanity and inflammatory language. Jeon accused nearly 80 media outlets of demanding to know why authorities had released him on bail despite his hour-long sermons. “They’re all shouting, ‘Why did they release Reverend Jeon, who preaches loudly for more than an hour?’” he said. “It’s outrageous. I don’t have the strength to preach in person, so I’ll keep delivering video sermons. They don’t even understand that — they edit the footage and call for my re-arrest, saying I’m healthy enough to be locked up again.” He then targeted JTBC directly: “Hey, you bastards — especially JTBC, that son of a —,” he said.
Jeon went on to assert, “South Korea is already ruined. Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun, and Moon Jae-in went to Pyongyang and signed a low-level federalization agreement. To form a federation you’d need shared political ideology and religion — do they match? The three leftist presidents are all frauds,” he said, disparaging former presidents from the Democratic Party.
He also urged congregants to make a special offering. “Listen carefully — we will take a special offering today,” Jeon said. “More than 20 million people have heard my sermons at least once or attended a Gwanghwamun rally. Within three months, everyone must give 1,000,000 KRW (approximately $750) as a special offering, even if they have to borrow the money,” he demanded.
Jeon justified the special offering with a series of hard-to-substantiate claims: that two years earlier he had warned South Korea would face another IMF crisis; that the donations were a matter of national survival; and that the three leftist presidents had declared federalization. He warned the media against reporting on it: “If the outlets make noise about this, I won’t leave them alone — I’ll sue them all,” he said. “If JTBC, MBC, or others splice clips and say ‘Jeon snapped,’ I’ll sue every one of them,” he added, repeating his threats and abusive language.
He also made comments aimed at internal checks within his circle. Citing Shin Hye-sik, Jeon said, “While I was in Kim’s room for two and a half months, I saw everyone trying to be king, jockeying for control. Shin Hye-sik talks too much — he’s lost his mind. Without a leader, it becomes a mess,” he said.
In response, An Na-kyung, JTBC’s weekend anchor, said on the evening Newsroom broadcast on the 19th that Jeon, who had claimed he was in very poor health, nonetheless attended the Gwanghwamun rally and service. “Following his court appearance the day before yesterday, he singled out JTBC today, accusing the media of trying to have him re-arrested, and repeated his political talking points along with insults,” she said.
JTBC’s report noted that Jeon, released on bail for health reasons, “unleashed the same political repertoire he has repeated for years” in front of Love First Church worshippers at that morning’s service. The network pointed out that, although he had been released due to poor health and faced criticism for attending the rally, Jeon dismissed the possibility of re-arrest, saying he lacked the strength to preach in person and would rely on video sermons. JTBC added that his bail conditions prohibited contact with seven people linked to the riot, but did not specifically ban attending rallies, so he attended and continued his political remarks.
