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
Sun Myung Moon former "Times" editors purchased the "Times" from News World. In 1982, Moon sponsored the film "Inchon", an historical drama about the Battle of Inchon during the Korean War. It was not successful critically or financially, and was criticized for its unfair treatment of the North Korean government. In 1989, Moon founded Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, the most successful soccer club in Korean football, having won a record 7 league titles, 2 FA Cups, 3 League Cups, and 2 AFC Champions League titles. The church is the largest owner of U.S. sushi restaurants and in the Kodiak region of Alaska, is the