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CONCLUSION
During the past decade, the ROK Government concerned about its image in
the mass media at home and abroad, took various measures to improve that
image. Within Korea, these measures took the forms of tight censorship of the
ROK print and broadcast media, at times by placing a KCIA official in their
offices. Further, since the early 1970's the Government tightly restricted access
to foreign news sources by Korean citizens and made it more difficult for Koreans
to receive Voice of American Korean-language broadcasts. In addition, it
censored passages from foreign publications.
In order to improve its image abroad, the Government sought to ingratiate
itself with foreign correspondents by KCIA offers of all expense paid trips to
Korea. At the same time, it denied entry to others believed to oppose it and
hindered news gathering of still others already in Korea.
Efforts to improve the image of the Government internationally included
enactment of harsh laws in Korea designed in part to limit contact between
foreign correspondents and Korean citizens. One 1975 law carried a maximum 7-
year prison sentence for Koreans who criticized the Government to foreigners or
foreign organizations.
Within the United States-Korean community, the ROK and KCIA established
and funded newspapers and radio and television broadcasts to give favorable
commentaries. Publishers of critical newspapers were blatantly harassed and
intimidated by the KCIA in cities across the country.
THE MOON ORGANIZATION
Introduction
During its 1976 investigation of KCIA activities in the United States, the
subcommittee received numerous allegations concerning Sun Myung Moon (225)
and organizations associated with him. By that time, Moon and the Unification
Church (UC) had generated controversy throughout the United States over a
variety of issues. Many Americans were distressed by the recruitment techniques
of the UC. Others questioned the failure of the UC to state openly its ties with the
numerous groups it had set up; the use to which it
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put its tax-exempt status; the propriety of its owning and operating an armaments
plant in South Korea; possible links to the South Korean Government; and
Moon's statements in late 1973 and 1974 concerning President Nixon and
Watergate. The most volatile controversy raged around the charges that
"Moonies" were brainwashed. The UC in turn countercharged that parents were
kidnaping UC members for "deprogramming" and successfully obtained court
orders restricting the activities of the deprogrammers.
Among the witnesses who testified before the subcommittee in 1976 was Lee
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