Another con man bite the dust
GAPYEONG, South Korea - Just hours after the death of Unification Church founder and "messiah" Sun Myung Moon, preparation work had already begun for what Church officials expect will be a huge funeral turnout.
At the church's sprawling, mountain-ringed headquarters in Gapyeong, east of Seoul, workers had started paving a one-kilometre, two-lane road leading to the complex where Moon's funeral will be held on September 15.
Officials said construction work was also set to begin on a special altar inside a large gymnasium at the centre of the complex, where the public will be allowed to offer their prayers from Thursday.
Bo Hi Pak, Moon's close aide for decades, said the number of mourners would be swelled by tens of thousands of church members expected to make the trip from overseas to pay their respects.
"We invited the largest number of guests from Japan, about 30,000 people.
We don't know how many people will be visiting from the US," Pak said.
The Unification Church claims a worldwide following of around three million people, although that figure is disputed by experts who say its popularity peaked in the 1980s and estimate current membership at several hundred thousand at most.
The mood inside the Gapyeong complex was quiet and sombre with no overt signs of mourning, although devotees spoke of their grief at Moon's death from pneumonia-related complications earlier Monday morning.
"I'm terribly sad. He was our father and the spiritual leader who purified my soul," said 45-year-old Lee Gil-Won.
"We have lost a great man and messiah. Despite his death, there will be no change in my faith," Lee added.
While followers mourned the man many of them regarded as a latter-day Jesus Christ, local Gapyeong residents unaffiliated with the church acknowledged his role as a major benefactor of the local economy.