Overview
The Odaeyang incident was a case in which the bodies of 32 people were found on August 29, 1987, in the space above the ceiling of the cafeteria at the handicraft factory of Odaeyang Co., Ltd., located in Buk-ri, Namsa-myeon, Yongin-gun, Gyeonggi Province (now Namsa-eup, Cheoin-gu, Yongin-si). The dead included the representative Park Sun-ja, three of her children (two sons and a daughter), the factory manager, employees and followers. Odaeyang outwardly appeared to be a company making folk handicrafts, but in reality it took the form of a faith community in which members followed Park Sun-ja as if she were a cult leader. Shortly before the incident, Park had failed to repay large private loans and was in conflict with creditors while under police investigation. Because the people who died were found in large numbers with their hands and feet bound, the case gave rise from the beginning to the question of whether it was a collective suicide or a homicide.
The police and prosecutors investigated three times, in 1987, 1989 and 1991, and each time concluded that it was a "collective suicide (a collective suicide or homicide carried out by one's own will)," in which internal members were made to take their own lives in turn, with the last person killing himself or herself. However, suspicions about the flow of the missing money and the relationship with a particular religious group were raised repeatedly afterward.
Background
According to a summary by the Edaily, in May 1984 Park Sun-ja gathered followers who had broken away from another religious group, founded a faith community named "Odaeyang," and established a company with the same name. The company was known as a manufacturer of folk handicrafts, and in 1988 it was designated as a company related to the Seoul Olympics. The company also ran an orphanage and a nursing home, and it later came to light that many of the children and elderly people there were in fact the children and parents of followers. Park Sun-ja was known as a respected figure in the region and had once received a government commendation.
Odaeyang borrowed private loans by even using the names of its followers. The amounts differ among sources. At the time, the press generally reported that about 17 billion won had been borrowed in private loans before the company went into hiding (Segye Ilbo, Hankyung and others), whereas the Korean Wikipedia gives the private loan amount as about 8.9 billion won and the total income as about 11.1 billion won, according to a 1988 report submitted to the National Assembly by the Ministry of Justice. Investigators took the view that debts kept growing as old debts were repaid with new ones.
Course of events
On August 16, 1987, a businessman who had lent Park Sun-ja several hundred million won went to the factory to demand repayment and was assaulted by employees. The police arrested 13 employees, and as complaints from other creditors followed one after another, the investigation expanded to include fraud charges. On August 24, while under police questioning, Park Sun-ja fainted and was hospitalized, but she left the hospital the next day and disappeared. It is reported that she had instructed followers to gather at the Yongin factory.
On August 28, the police searched the Yongin factory following reports from creditors but did not find Park Sun-ja and the others. The next day, August 29, a factory employee noticed that part of the cafeteria ceiling had collapsed and, while checking it, discovered 32 bodies in the space above the ceiling. Park Sun-ja's husband, who had been contacted, reported the matter to the police. At the time, about 80 people were staying at the factory, and according to the Korean Wikipedia, some of them had hidden in other spaces and were brought out by the police.
Investigation and conclusion
Investigation in 1987
Based on the autopsy results, including the fact that no poison was detected and there were no signs of resistance, the police provisionally concluded that it was a collective suicide centered on Park Sun-ja. However, because they could not find the employees who had left the factory before or after the incident, they could not clarify the specific circumstances, and they put some employees on a wanted list. A memo found at the scene contained descriptions of fear and pressure, but its meaning was not clearly established.
Re-investigations in 1989 and 1991
The case was investigated again in 1989, but the conclusion did not change. On July 10, 1991, six former Odaeyang employees who had been wanted surrendered together, and the case drew renewed attention after four years. The Seoul Shinmun reported that this surrender was received as a "hard-to-understand collective surrender," and the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office launched a re-investigation based on their statements. In this process, prosecutors examined whether part of the private loans borrowed by Odaeyang had flowed toward the Korea Gospel Baptist Church (commonly known as the "Guwonpa" or "Salvation Sect"), because Park Sun-ja and her close associates had once belonged to the Guwonpa.
On August 1, 1991, Yoo Byung-eun, the head of Semo, was arrested, but the charge against him was not related to the collective deaths in Odaeyang; it was habitual fraud for failing to repay large sums borrowed from followers. Yoo was sentenced to four years in prison for this fraud. Prosecutors again concluded that the deaths of the 32 people were a collective suicide, and they found no evidence that Yoo or the Guwonpa had been involved in the mass deaths.
Disputes and theories
- Homicide and hidden-backer theories: Tak Myeong-hwan, director of the Religious Issues Research Institute, and others argued that the mass deaths were a homicide rather than a suicide and that there was a hidden backing force. The so-called "Guwonpa hidden-backer theory" was widely reported in the media. However, this is a claim that differs from the conclusion of investigators, and it has not been confirmed as fact by the courts.
- Criticism of media coverage: Some outlets, including the monthly magazine Wolgan Chosun, the SBS program Something About Us (Geugeosi Almago Sipda), and the weekly Sisa Journal, pointed out that the incident was in some respects inflated amid intense media competition and political exploitation.
- Size of the private loans: As noted above, estimates of the private loans vary from about 8.9 billion won to 17 billion won depending on the source.
- Circumstances of the deaths: Even regarding the police announcement in 1987, explanations of who died and in what order differ slightly from source to source.
Re-examination in 2014
After the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014, when members of Yoo Byung-eun's family were identified as the de facto owners of Chonghaejin Marine, the Odaeyang incident was also mentioned again. Some media outlets reported again on suspicions linking the Odaeyang incident to the Guwonpa, but in corrections and rebuttals published after press arbitration, the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office stated that, after reviewing the investigation records from 1987, there was no evidence that the Odaeyang incident was connected to the Guwonpa or Yoo Byung-eun. The Korea Gospel Baptist Church also repeatedly stated that the denomination had nothing to do with the incident. Because the statute of limitations under the law had already expired at the time, the matter could not be contested again through criminal proceedings.
Significance
The Odaeyang incident is regarded as a case in which closed control within a pseudo-religious community combined with reckless private-loan management and led to large-scale loss of life, and it is counted as one of the occasions that prompted Korean society to seriously recognize the problem of pseudo-religious groups. At the same time, because suspicions that differ from the conclusions of investigations were repeatedly reported over a long period, the case has also left behind a question of journalistic ethics, in that unconfirmed hidden-backer theories can lead to the stigmatization of particular groups.
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