A rather isolated community of large palatial buildings is nestled in a mountainous area of Gapyeong, Gyeonggi province, about 60 kilometers northeast of Seoul.

One of the buildings is the headquarters of the Unification Church. Other structures bearing the church’s logo include the Cheon Jeong Gung Museum, a hospital, a boarding school, a retirement facility and a huge restaurant called “Heaven G Burger.”

But the foot and vehicle traffic were sparse in the area on a recent weekday, a reflection of the dwindling church membership in South Korea.

Even the Cheongshim Peace World Center, where mass weddings have been held, was fairly empty.

Critics of the church, now formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, say the organization can continue to hold on to such assets partly because of the revenue coming from Japan.

According to South Korean media, the Unification Church owns 46.2 million square meters of land in South Korea, and its total assets are worth 2 trillion won (about 200 billion yen or $1.4 billion).

Kwak Chung-hwan, once a close associate of Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church, is now one of the critics of the group.

“Donations from Japan have provided a large pillar for global activities” by the church, Kwak said at a July news conference in Seoul after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was killed in Japan by a gunman with an apparent grudge against the church.

Kwak said the various organizations affiliated with the Unification Church in Japan have become completely removed from their original purpose.

They are now economic corps designed to drum up donations, he said.

MEMBERSHIP SLIDES IN SOUTH KOREA

Although the Unification Church was founded in South Korea in 1954, it now has fewer members there than in Japan.

The decline in South Korean followers stems from the large presence of Christians in South Korea.

About 30 percent of the South Korean population are Christian, exceeding even the 15 percent or so who say they are Buddhist.

A South Korean political source said, “Christians have a huge influence in South Korean society,” and many established Christian churches have long considered the Unification Church as “heretical.”

South Korean media reports say there are between 200,000 and 300,000 members of the Unification Church in South Korea.

However, Tak Ji-il, a professor at Busan Presbyterian University who has written several books about the Unification Church, estimates the number at 20,000, including those who moved from Japan after marrying fellow members.

In 2012, the Unification Church said it had 206 churches in Japan with total membership of about 600,000.

But Tak said the Japanese follower number is likely only about 40,000 now.

The Unification Church was recognized as a religious corporation in Japan in 1964, 10 years after its founding in South Korea.

“With the difficulties faced in missionary work in South Korea, the church likely tried to expand its activities in Japan,” a political source said.

POLITICAL TIES IN SEOUL

In 1968, Moon established the International Federation for Victory over Communism.

With the Unification Church facing difficulties recruiting members, Tak said, “They attempted to expand their influence over a wide range of areas, including politics, culture, the media and education.”

At that time, the South Korean president was military strongman Park Chung-hee.

Because the Park government was also anti-Communist, the Unification Church was able to have one of its affiliated companies provide cannons to the South Korean military.

There is a record of Park visiting that company’s plant in 1977, showing the friendly ties between his administration and the church.

But the progress of democratization in South Korea placed the Unification Church in a more difficult position.

In 1987 and again in 1992, when Kim Young-sam ran in the South Korean presidential election, scandals emerged about the support he received from those with ties to the church.

According to Tak, voters became more critical of the church following media reports, and politicians began distancing themselves from the organization.

The church tried to directly enter the political arena but failed miserably.

It established its own political party in 2007 and ran candidates in all 245 districts in the national assembly election held the following year. But the party only gained about 180,000 votes in the proportional representation constituency, or just 1.1 percent of the total, and no church candidate won a seat.

The party was soon disbanded, and the church no longer supports a particular party or lawmaker in South Korea, according to a political source.