South Korean prosecutors question church leader

Senior Health Ministry official Yoon Tae-ho said the spread of the coronavirus was clearly stabilizing in the Seoul area and other major cities, where transmissions had spiked since late May. The 60 new cases reported Friday included 39 linked to people arriving from abroad.

South Korean prosecutors on Friday questioned the leader of a secretive church sect over accusations that they hampered the government's anti-virus response after thousands of COVID-19 infections were detected among its members in February and March. Lee Man-hee, the 88-year-old chairman of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, was questioned for about four hours at a district prosecutors' office in Suwon, south of capital Seoul, before being sent home after he complained about unspecified health problems, prosecution and church officials said.

Hwang Seong-Hyeon, a prosecutor in Suwon, said his office plans to summon Lee again for further questioning. Lee and other Shincheonji leaders have faced suspicions of hiding some of the church's membership and under-reporting its worship activities to health authorities to avoid broader quarantines. Prosecutors last week arrested three senior members of the church over the allegations. Lee and Shincheonji have steadfastly denied the accusation, saying that the church has been properly cooperating with health authorities.

More than 5,200 of South Korea's 13,672 COVID-19 cases have been linked to the church so far. The church's branch in the southern city of Daegu emerged as the biggest cluster after infections spiked in late February. Health authorities had used an aggressive test-and-quarantine program to contain the outbreak in Daegu and nearby towns by April, but the country has seen a resurgence of the virus in the Seoul metropolitan area since late May as people increasingly venture out in the public.

Earlier, South Korean health officials were optimistic the country's COVID-19 outbreak is coming under control. Senior Health Ministry official Yoon Tae-ho said the spread of the coronavirus was clearly stabilizing in the Seoul area and other major cities, where transmissions had spiked since late May. The 60 new cases reported Friday included 39 linked to people arriving from abroad. The country is enforcing two-week quarantines on all people arriving from abroad.

The government plans to airlift more South Korean workers next week from Iraq. Health authorities have confirmed 34 cases among some 100 construction workers who returned earlier this week.