The following was reported in a newspaper on March 7, 2000.

It seems like only yesterday that members of the Manmin Central Church stormed the MBC station and shut down the broadcast, but recently, hundreds of members of the Church of God's Ahnsahnghong Witness Society attacked a video rental store in Suyuri, Seoul, in broad daylight.

These two incidents have in common the indiscriminate use of "terrorism" by religious organizations against media or individuals who criticize them. They also illustrate the blind nature of religious organizations that will go to any extra-legal and extra-judicial lengths to silence criticism, whether the target is a state-owned station or a family's home.

Despite the seriousness of the crime, which was an attack on a state-owned facility, the investigation by the prosecutor's office and the police department in charge of the case did not proceed quickly enough. The attack on the video store by members of the Ahnsahnghong Witness Society also illustrates the powerlessness of public authorities. Mr. Jeong and Mrs. Kim Ki-bok were brutally attacked by a mob of religious followers in a video store that was supposed to be their home. The wife was brutally beaten, and the husband was forced to watch his beloved wife being beaten while surrounded by the mob.

The police who showed up at the scene of the attack encouraged the disfigured victim to write an "apology" as demanded by the assailant. It is a mystery why the police had to show such weakness in the face of those who perpetrated violence in the name of a religious organization. The lukewarm response of the public authorities may have been a significant factor in making the murder of Tak Myung-hwan, the arson of the church of heretical researcher Jin Yong-sik, and the mass protests and court cases following the broadcasting of religious criticism programs by media organizations a trend. Reporter Lee Seung-gyun