SEOUL -- For South Korean politicians' relations with the Unification Church, 1987 was a turning point. That year, Kim Young-sam, a longtime activist and fierce opponent of the military dictatorships that had ruled the country for decades, was running for president.
He was in a tight race on the opposition ticket with Kim Dae-jung, another darling of the anti-dictatorship movement. In the run-up to the vote, Young-sam's campaign was thrown off course by allegations of shady associations with the Unification Church, including claims that Young-sam's camp had accepted millions in funding from the church and that, if elected, he would lay the ground for the church to build its headquarters in a coveted Seoul neighborhood.
