Gyeonggi Province Forcibly Enters Shincheonji Gwacheon Headquarters...Focuses on Securing Membership List

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] Gyeonggi Province has launched an emergency forced investigation into the Shincheonji Gwacheon headquarters.

According to the province on the 25th, around 10:30 a.m. that day, the province deployed approximately 40 personnel including epidemiological investigators and civil servants to Shincheonji Gwacheon Church with police cooperation to conduct a mandatory epidemiological investigation. The aim is to secure the Shincheonji membership list and related materials through this process.

According to provincial officials, the forced measure was taken after residents of Seocho-gu, Seoul and Anyang City who attended the worship service at the Gwacheon Shincheonji General Assembly headquarters on the 16th tested positive for COVID-19.

Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung previously explained the background of the forced investigation through his SNS.

Governor Lee stated, "The Gwacheon worship service is a large-scale collective event with a similar scale to the gathering (9,336 attendees) identified as the cause of the cluster infection in Daegu. If we do not implement quarantine measures equivalent to military operations targeting believers who attended this worship service where multiple confirmed cases have begun to occur, there is a critical risk that a second Daegu Shincheonji incident could occur in Gyeonggi Province."

He continued, "We cannot miss the golden time to prevent large-scale infection. We have no time to delay further waiting for Shincheonji to submit their membership list." He added, "(Based on materials secured through mandatory epidemiological investigation) we will swiftly proceed with isolation and infection testing for the attending believers."

Governor Lee also stated that reliable quarantine measures cannot be implemented by relying solely on materials provided by Shincheonji, saying "We will conduct thorough cross-checks as we secure attendance records and do our utmost in quarantine efforts. Since Shincheonji has agreed to provide the complete membership list to the government, we expect them to cooperate smoothly with the Gyeonggi Province investigation."