The Unification Church used large sums of money collected from Japanese followers and donors to build a car factory in North Korea, a former high-ranking intelligence officer in Tokyo told NK News, amid intense scrutiny on the church in the aftermath of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination. 

While the church’s fundraising in Japan is well documented, Mitsuhiro Suganuma is the first to specify that the religious group funneled donations from Japan toward Pyeonghwa Motors, the automobile company that the church established in South Korea as one of the first inter-Korean economic projects in 2000.

“The Japanese branch of