Tongil Group Tongil Group Tongil Group is a South Korean business group (chaebol) associated with the Unification Church. (“Tongil” is Korean for “unification,” the name of the Unification Church in Korean is “Tongilgyo.”) It was founded in 1963 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon (following the purchase of a surplus Japanese lathe in 1962) as a nonprofit organization which would provide revenue for the church. Its core focus was manufacturing but in the 1970s and 1980s it expanded by founding or acquiring businesses in pharmaceuticals, tourism, and publishing. In 1998 Tongil Group was about 35th in size among South Korean business
Unification Church of the United States the government and the public.(see also: United States vs. Sun Myung Moon) In the 1970s the American news media began using the word "Moonie" to refer to Unification Church members. This was widely considered to be derogatory. In the 1980s and 1990s the church undertook an extensive public relations campaign against the use of the word by the news media. In 1989 the "Chicago Tribune" was picketed after referring to members as "Moonies". Minister and civil rights leader James Bevel handed out fliers at the protest which said: "Are the Moonies our new niggers?" On an October 6, 1994 broadcast