View source for Chung Hwan Kwak

{{Infobox Korean name|
|hangul=곽정환　
|hanja={{linktext|郭|錠|煥|}}
|rr=Gwak Jeong-hwan
|mr=Kwak Chŏnghwan
}}
{{family name hatnote|Kwak||lang=Korean}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Chung Hwan Kwak
| birth_date         = {{Birth date and age|1936|01|22}}
| occupation         = religious leader
}}
'''Chung Hwan Kwak''', (born January 22, 1936) is a South Korean religious leader.  He was in leadership in the  [[Unification Church]] until 2009. He was appointed to many lead positions in [[organizations related to the Unification Church]] by its founder [[Sun Myung Moon]]. Since 2002, he was the chairman and president of [[News World Communications]], which owns [[United Press International]], and other publications, including the ''[[Middle East Times]]'', and ''Tiempos del Mundo'', a Spanish-language newspaper published in 16 countries throughout the Americas.<ref>[http://seattle.bizjournals.com/gen/executive.html?excode=2D64EE0290FD4F54A73F6956EDD8812B Dr. Chung Hwan Kwak], American City Business Journals, Accessed August 26, 2008</ref><ref name="Columbia Journalism Review">{{cite web |url=https://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=newsworld |title=News World Communications |accessdate=2008-02-02 |date=2003-11-24 |work=The Columbia Journalism Review |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728094939/http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=newsworld |archive-date=2012-07-28 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://about.upi.com/?q=AboutUs/index.php?ContentID=20050929155410-9574 Leadership Team] [[United Press International]]</ref> He was 0palso the president of the ''Family Party for the Universal Peace and Unity'', a [[South Korea]]n political party founded by Unification Church members, one of whose main goals is the [[reunification of Korea]].<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3944/is_200305/ai_n9239403 Sun Myung Moon forms new political party to merge divided Koreas], [[Americans United for Separation of Church and State|Church and State]], May 2003</ref> He was also the chairman of the Social Responsibility Committee for the [[Asian Football Confederation]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/sport/home/unplayers/fundsprogrammesagencies/fao/template/news_item.jsp?cid=32764 |title=United Nations Sport for Development and Peace&nbsp;– FAO |publisher=Un.org |date=2011-07-29 |accessdate=2012-05-23}}</ref>
Kwak advocated ''[[The Washington Times]]'' to support international organizations such as the [[United Nations]] and to promote for [[world peace]] and interfaith understanding. This created difficulties for editor [[Wesley Pruden]] and some of the ''Times''{{'}} columnists. Issues of contention included the Unification movement's reconciliatory attitude towards [[North Korea]], which at the time included joint business ventures, and Kwak's advocacy for greater understanding between the United States and the [[Islamic world]]. David Ignatius, reporting for [[The Washington Post]], predicted that conservatives in Congress and the [[George W. Bush]] administration would support Pruden's position over Kwak's.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Ignatius|first=David|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50909-2004Jun17.html|title=Tension of the Times|date=June 18, 2004|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106154418/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50909-2004Jun17.html|archive-date=November 6, 2012|page=A29|quote=Insiders say the church's new line is that with the end of the Cold War, it's important to support international organizations such as the United Nations and to campaign for world peace and interfaith understanding. That stance would be awkward for The Washington Times's hard-line editor in chief, Wesley Pruden, and its stable of neoconservative columnists.|author-link=David Ignatius}}</ref>
Kwak's daughter, Jun Sook Kwak, is married to Moon's son, [[Hyun Jin Moon|Hyun Jin Preston Moon]].<ref>[http://www.cesnur.org/testi/moon_1199.htm From the Unification Church to the Unification Movement, 1994-1999: Five Years of Dramatic Changes] [[Center for Studies on New Religions]] "Hyun Jin Moon's blessing to Rev. Chung Hwan Kwak's (the Reverend Moon's assistant and former president of the FFWPUI) daughter, Jun Sook Kwak, was also a significant point of continuity."</ref><ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50909-2004Jun17.html Tension of the Times] ''[[The Washington Post]]'' June 18, 2004, "Sources say that the dominant church official overseeing the publications is now the Rev. Chung Hwan Kwak, a close adviser to the church's founder, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon."</ref>  Kwak left the Unification Church in 2009 after internal strife and is now the Honorary President of the [[Global Peace Foundation]], Preston Moon's controversial [[sect]] that has battled other Unification Church offshoots led by his brother and mother for control of Unification Church assets.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3185908/unification-churchs-founder-was-close-shinzo-abes-grandfather | title=Unification Church's founder 'was close' to Shinzo Abe's grandfather | date=20 July 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.globalpeace.org/people/dr-chung-hwan-kwak | title=Dr. Chung Hwan Kwak &#124; Global Peace Foundation }}</ref>
After the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister [[Shinzo Abe]] by the son of a Unification Church member, Kwak held a press conference in which he apologized and blamed other Unification Church leaders.<ref>{{cite web |date=20 July 2022 |title= |script-title=ko:“아베 사망, 통일교 무리한 헌금 탓” 전 통일교 2인자 곽정환 주장 |trans-title=“Abe died due to excessive donations to the Unification Church,” asserts Kwak Jeong-hwan, former second leader of the Unification Church |url=https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/religious/1051627.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220720031634/https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/religious/1051627.html |archive-date=20 July 2022 |publisher=[[The Hankyoreh]] |language=ko}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=20 July 2022 |title= |script-title=ja:旧統一教会“元No.2”が謝罪「安倍元総理の死に責任」…献金も痛烈批判「教団は堕落」 |trans-title=Former Unification Church "former No. 2" apologizes "responsible for the death of former Prime Minister Abe" ... Donations are also severely criticized "the cult is corrupt" |url=https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/1db8e69cd3b657a0a611f65452bcb3ecc836477d |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220720032750/https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/1db8e69cd3b657a0a611f65452bcb3ecc836477d |archive-date=20 July 2022 |publisher=[[TV Asahi]] |language=ja}}</ref>
== Speeches and writings==
* [http://www.tparents.org/library/unification/talks/Kwak/ collected speeches and writings]
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Unification Church}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kwak, Chung Hwan}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1936 births]]
[[Category:South Korean Unificationists]]