Newt Gingrich and Dr. Demian Dunkley on Religious Freedom, Dr. Hak Ja Han, and the Growing Global Threat to Faith.
For more than six decades, Dr. Hak Ja Han has built a global movement centered on faith, peace, and religious freedom. Now, at 83 years old and in frail health, she is at the center of a high-profile criminal case in South Korea. Prosecutors have accused the co-founder of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification of bribery, violating political finance laws, embezzlement, and ordering the destruction of evidence, allegations she has denied. With prosecutors seeking a 13-year prison sentence, Newt Gingrich argues that her treatment raises much larger questions about religious liberty and the growing pressure facing people of faith around the world.
On this episode of Newt’s World, Newt is joined by Dr. Demian Dunkley, president of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification USA, to examine Dr. Han’s extraordinary life and the events that led to her detention. Dunkley recounts her childhood escape from communist North Korea, decades of work alongside her late husband, Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and her efforts to promote peace across political, national, and religious divides. Their conversation also explores the current case in South Korea and why Newt believes Dr. Han’s experience should concern anyone who values the freedom to worship, speak, and live according to one’s faith.
Listen to the episode below, or scroll down for an edited transcript.
Edited Transcript
This conversation has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
Newt Gingrich
I am really pleased to welcome my guest, Dr. Demian Dunkley. Dr. Dunkley joined the Unification Church in New York in 1996. Since 2017, he has served as chief marketing officer and executive producer of the Peace Starts With Me campaign, working with the American Clergy Leadership Conference. In October 2020, he was appointed regional president of the church’s Asia Pacific One region, covering 20 nations and roughly 3.7 billion people. In March 2024, he returned to the United States to serve as chairman and president of Family Federation USA, a role he continues to hold today.
He’s joining me primarily to talk about the woman at the center of his faith and now at the center of a South Korean courtroom, Dr. Hak Ja Han. She and her late husband, Reverend Sun Myung Moon, founded the Unification Church and led the movement together until his death in 2012. Since then, she has led the church.
Special prosecutors in Seoul have accused her of bribery, violating the Political Funds Act, embezzlement, and ordering the destruction of evidence, and have asked the court to sentence her to 13 years in prison. She has denied the allegations.
Dr. Dunkley, welcome, and thank you for joining me on Newt’s World.
I know Dr. Han can’t speak for herself right now, so I appreciate you being here to speak on her behalf. Let’s start at the beginning because I suspect most of our listeners had never heard her name before this case made headlines.
Dr. Hak Ja Han was born in 1943 in what is now North Korea. Her family’s account is that she, her mother, and her grandmother were held by North Korean communist authorities before the family fled south when she was six. What do you know about that early life, and how does the church talk about those years?
Dr. Demian Dunkley
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for having me and taking the time to speak about this.
Dr. Han’s youth is remarkable. She was born near the end of World War II and experienced only a handful of years in an impoverished nation before it descended into war between North and South.
At six years old, she was with her mother and grandmother, three generations of committed Christian believers. They were forced to flee south because of an uncle associated with the South Korean army. Her mother and grandmother initially did not want to leave because they believed great spiritual things would happen in Pyongyang, which was sometimes called the Jerusalem of the East.
They ultimately had to leave to save their lives. They traveled more than 200 kilometers, often at night and through muddy fields because roads had been destroyed. They knocked on doors asking for food when they could.
They were captured near the border and sent to a prison. Dr. Han, only six years old, developed a relationship with one of the guards, offering him whatever food or rations they had. Eventually, that guard let the three of them go.
As they continued south, a man helped them cross the border at night. The story is that Dr. Han was singing a song of freedom as they crossed. A South Korean soldier heard the voice of this six-year-old girl and, rather than immediately firing, stopped to investigate. He ultimately gave them the money he had in his pocket to help them continue their journey.
It is one of many remarkable stories about a young woman who, from her earliest memories, believed she had a relationship with God. She saw God as her parent and herself as God’s daughter. She didn’t simply dream of a peaceful world. She believed she had a responsibility to help build it.
Newt Gingrich
She really was, in her own right, a deeply committed Christian and had enormous courage even at six years old.
I think that’s important because sometimes in the West, we tend to see her primarily in the context of her husband, who was, of course, a remarkable charismatic leader. But as you’re describing it, she was really parallel to him, not subordinate to him.
Dr. Demian Dunkley
Absolutely. As a worldwide religious figure, a woman, and a peace leader, that may be one of the misconceptions she has had to carry.
People have asked her how she developed such a deep understanding of faith when she never attended seminary. She grew up well-versed in the Bible with a deeply Christian mother and grandmother who were also involved in the struggle for their nation’s independence.
Dr. Han has explained that discovering God and understanding truth felt natural to her. She didn’t believe she needed a school or seminary to develop a profound relationship with God or understand her purpose in life.
Newt Gingrich
It’s important to put this in historical context. Korea went through a terrible cycle under Japanese occupation and then, after Japan’s defeat in 1945, was divided between a generally pro-American South and a communist North.
Even before the Korean War, people were being persecuted in the North, where there was a relentless anti-Christian and anti-religious approach.
Out of that environment, people like Dr. Han and Reverend Sun Myung Moon emerged. Their lives were at risk, and yet they found God, clung to God, and risked everything for their faith.
Dr. Demian Dunkley
That context is remarkable. Some people have asked how they could dream of a peaceful world after experiencing so much conflict. But when you grow up under those circumstances, perhaps it isn’t so strange to dream about peace.
To this day, Dr. Han is dreaming of a world of peace and praying for a world of peace, not simply for herself, but for everyone.
Newt Gingrich
Her husband also endured extraordinary persecution. Reverend Moon spent two years and eight months in a North Korean prison camp and was imprisoned multiple times during his life, including in the United States.
Yet their commitment to defeating communism and advancing peace and freedom around the world never seemed to waver.
Dr. Demian Dunkley
Correct. That is one reason they founded so many organizations. Much of their work was about education and helping people understand the threat of communism, while also working across political, religious, and national boundaries in pursuit of peace.
Newt Gingrich
In 1982, Reverend Moon and Dr. Han founded The Washington Times, which became an important conservative voice in Washington.
At the same time, they were willing to engage directly with communist leaders. They met with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990. Then, in 1991, they met with Kim Il-Sung, the dictator of North Korea.
What do you think they were trying to accomplish?
Dr. Demian Dunkley
They came to America because they believed America was a world leader and a nation blessed by God.
They believed Americans should not merely be grateful for their own freedom but should use that freedom to help others. In that sense, America’s greatest export may be the belief that freedom comes from God, not government.
They saw The Washington Times as a way to educate America and encourage America to lead the world.
But they were also willing to go directly to people with whom they profoundly disagreed. When they met Kim Il-Sung, they were meeting a man connected to enormous suffering in their homeland. Yet they wanted to approach him without resentment.
They believed peace could not come only through military or diplomatic power. It also required recognizing our shared humanity and the existence of God.
Newt Gingrich
I remember being with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the 10th anniversary of Reverend Moon’s passing. North Korea sent an enormous floral tribute honoring his work for world peace.
It was remarkable to see an anti-Christian communist dictatorship reaching out to honor a man who had spent his life advocating faith and freedom.
Dr. Demian Dunkley
There was a genuine relationship built there.
Before Reverend Moon and Dr. Han went to North Korea, they spent weeks in prayer. Dr. Han has said they wanted to make sure there was not even a speck of resentment left in their hearts before meeting Kim Il-Sung.
They understood that if they were going there as peace leaders, they could not carry hatred with them.
That willingness to see a common humanity beyond politics and power is something I hope remains relevant today.
Newt Gingrich
Another part of Dr. Han’s story that I don’t think receives enough attention is her family. She had 14 children and around 40 grandchildren, all while helping lead a global movement.
She must have an enormous level of energy.
Dr. Demian Dunkley
I’ve watched her sit through hours and hours of reports from around the world while retaining remarkable details from conversations that happened weeks, months, or even years earlier.
She pays extraordinary attention to people. She can be deeply interested in a major international report and then equally moved by a simple story about a child in a distant country who had an experience with God.
What I find most remarkable is her continuing desire to bring an end to suffering, war, loneliness, and confusion. She dreams of a world in which people understand God as their parent and one another as brothers and sisters.
Newt Gingrich
She also turned those beliefs into practical institutions.
In 1992, she founded the Women’s Federation for World Peace and has spoken around the world about the role of women in peacebuilding. In 2005, she and Reverend Moon co-founded the Universal Peace Federation, which developed a presence in countries around the world.
She has spent decades trying to turn a dream into practical reality.
Dr. Demian Dunkley
And she was willing to take risks to do it.
She was sometimes warned not to speak about God or freedom in certain countries because doing so could create problems. But her attitude has consistently been that she is more afraid not to speak about God or stand for freedom.
That commitment has defined her life.
Newt Gingrich
And now we arrive at the present situation. Here is a woman who has spent decades building a movement for peace, and she ends up as a criminal defendant.
How did we reach this point?
Dr. Demian Dunkley
In May 2025, I received a phone call saying Dr. Han had been placed under a travel ban. I was shocked.
Initially, she was described as a witness. Then there was a travel ban, followed by questioning, detention, indictment, and prolonged custody.
She is 83 years old, has serious health challenges, and prosecutors have asked for a 13-year sentence. She has consistently denied the allegations against her.
We are not asking anyone to ignore the law. But we have been asking whether the treatment of an elderly religious leader is humane.
At what point does justice become inhumane?
Newt Gingrich
As I understand it, she is legally blind, suffers from atrial fibrillation, and underwent shoulder surgery after a fall. Yet she is being treated as though she were a hardened criminal.
I have had a long relationship with South Korea, and a few years ago I would have said this kind of situation was inconceivable. Yet we are now living through it.
Dr. Demian Dunkley
In July, I was traveling to Korea when I began receiving reports of a raid on our main spiritual campus in Gapyeong.
There were reports of bus after bus filled with police, investigators, prosecutors, and others. Offices and religious spaces were searched.
What affected Dr. Han deeply was the treatment of sacred spaces. She had personally helped prepare the sanctuary as a place where people of all faiths could come to pray.
She asked a simple question afterward: Why didn’t they just ask?
She said she would have spoken with investigators if they wanted to ask her questions. She could not understand why they felt it necessary to enter the spaces in that manner.
Newt Gingrich
This is why I think this case matters far beyond one person or one church.
I believe this is part of a worldwide challenge to religious liberty. The persecution of any religious leader should matter to people everywhere who care about the freedom to believe.
Dr. Han has become a symbol of a much larger question: whether people of faith will continue to have the freedom to worship, organize, speak, and live according to their beliefs.
Dr. Demian Dunkley
That is what this experience has taught me.
If we allow a neighbor to be targeted because they are different from us, who will be there when someone comes for us?
This is bigger than Dr. Han or our church. People of faith need to be willing to stand up for one another.
I recently met Christian leaders from Nigeria who had lost friends and colleagues to violence. Hearing their stories reminded me that religious persecution is not confined to one country or one faith community.
Those of us who believe in peace have to speak clearly while also guarding against anger and resentment. We have to stand for our neighbors, especially when doing so is difficult.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to have this conversation.
Newt Gingrich
Dr. Dunkley, thank you for joining me.
More on Dr. Hak Ja Han
About the Guest
Dr. Demian Dunkley is chairman and president of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification USA. He joined the Unification Church in New York in 1996 and has held leadership roles within the organization in the United States and internationally. Since 2017, he has also served as chief marketing officer and executive producer of the Peace Starts With Me campaign, working with the American Clergy Leadership Conference. In 2020, he was appointed regional president for the church’s Asia Pacific One region, encompassing 20 nations, before returning to the United States in 2024 to lead Family Federation USA.
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