Sun Myung Moon by the governments of both North and South Korea. Businesses he promoted included News World Communications, an international news media corporation known for its American subsidiary "The Washington Times", and Tongil Group, a South Korean business group (chaebol), as well as various related organizations. Moon was born in what is now North Korea. When he was a child, his family converted to Christianity. In 1947 he was convicted by the North Korean government of spying for South Korea and given a five-year sentence to the Hŭngnam labor camp. In 1954, he founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of
United States v. Sun Myung Moon to six months imprisonment which he served at Danbury along with Moon. Kenneth Briggs, former religion editor of the New York Times, wrote: Ed Farmer, a fellow inmate, said: While Moon was in prison, Unification Church members launched a public-relations campaign. Booklets, letters and videotapes were mailed to approximately 300,000 Christian leaders in the United States. Many signed petitions protesting the government's case. Among the American Christian leaders who spoke out in defense of Moon were conservative Jerry Falwell, head of Moral Majority, and liberal Joseph Lowery, head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Among the other people who protested