Pacific News Minute: South Korean Cult Leader Held On Charges Of Slavery In Fiji

<br>One former follower told South Korean television that a father was forced to hit his son more than 100 times. According to RNZ Pacific, Grace Road Church established a productive rice plantation on fifty acres of land  [https://www.foxnews.com/world/south-korea-church-coronavirus-spread Choo Mi Ae] south of Suva, then expanded into a chain of restaurants, a laundromat, a hardware store and a construction company. Last year, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama presented Grace Road with the Prime Minister’s International Business Excellence Award. The church also won government contracts even as reports emerged that might have sent up red flags.<br><br>The South Korean city of Daegu was facing an "unprecedented crisis" after coronavirus infections that centred on a controversial "cult" church surged to 38 cases, accounting for nearly half of the country’s total. "We are in an unprecedented crisis," Daegu’s mayor, Kwon Young-jin, told reporters. He ordered the shutdown of all kindergartens and public libraries, according to the news agency Yonhap.<br><br>The leader of a religious sect in South Korea is facing charges of gross negligence over some of the country's coronavirus deaths. Seoul's city government asked prosecutors to charge Lee Man-hee, the founder of the Shincheonji church, and 11 others. The church is accused of hiding the names of some members as officials tried to track patients before the virus spread.<br>