Providence Church Jung Myung Seok: Australian women ‘brainwashed’ and lured into South Korean sex cult

A South Korean cult has been accused of recruiting vulnerable young Australian women in shopping malls to be brainwashed and then sent abroad.

The victims were told they were the “spiritual brides” of Jung Myung Seok (JMS), the self-proclaimed Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the messiah of the Providence Church he founded in 1978.

But JMS is a convicted rapist and the women were not sent to his camp in Wolmyeongdong for spiritual reasons, but to be allegedly sexually assaulted.

The recruiters are reportedly being told to find tall, slender white women for JMS, and two Australian survivors, Liz and Amy (not their real names) have spoken out to warn others to be aware they may also be targeted can be.

Amy was recruited while on her way to meet a friend to go bowling at Melbourne Central mall, she told Channel 7’s Spotlight program.

“Suddenly someone tapped me on the shoulder, I turned around and two girls smiled at me…they asked me to do a survey about my faith,” she said.

Amy was then 22 in 2014 and had a growing interest in Christianity. The chance encounter would change her life for the worst.

“I believed this was an almost elevated version of Christianity because that’s how they pitched it to me,” she said.

Liz had just finished Year 12 when she was approached at the Canberra Center and thought it ‘sounded really fun and exciting’.

‘I had a gap year, so I wanted to travel, I worked part time and I also thought about what I was going to do with my life.

“I was in a very good position to be susceptible to psychological coercion, and they certainly took advantage of that.”

The young women attended Bible study classes and tutors, eventually moving to cult houses in Australia, where their lives were tightly controlled, including getting up at 2 a.m. every day to pray to JMS.

Over time, their physical and mental resistance wore off, and the people they considered friends told them they were “faith stars.”

The phrase was a cover for the prettiest, tallest, most obedient women who were brainwashed into believing they are brides of God, and thus brides of JMS.

“It was never explained to us that JMS wanted that because he was sexually deviant and psychopathic,” Liz said. “That man is just a sick, deranged predator.”

While still in Australia, JMS was serving a 10-year prison sentence for sexual assault against four Providence members after they were convicted of rape in 2008.

Liz and Amy traveled to Korea to meet him in prison.

“(We were told) that he spent 10 years in prison was not because he raped women, but because he saves all the souls of mankind,” said Amy.

‘It seemed logical to me. Unfortunately that really happened.’

Liz said there was only plexiglass between them when they sat across from him in jail.

“He came in, just in a prison suit, smiled at us, blew kisses,” she said. “It makes me sick just thinking about it.”

Looking back, Liz said she was “definitely groomed to be attacked, abused and raped by him.”

Back in Australia, Liz was able to escape the clutches of Providence with the help of her mother and a cult decoder who staged an intervention.

But Amy wasn’t so lucky.

She went back to South Korea and stayed at the Wolmyeongdong compound where JMS was living at the time, after being released from prison.

Amy said she was sexually assaulted five times by JMS.

At one point she was told to go with him to a room where an interpreter was present.

She was told to take off her clothes and he would dress her, she said.

“After getting me dressed, he sat down on a chair and asked me to stand in front of him and started talking to me.

“And at that moment… he just lifted up my skirt and put his hands in my underwear.

“And for that whole five minutes he just talked to me… touched me,” she said.

Amy was shocked and shared what happened to a female Providence leader.

She told the young Australian that JMS was her husband. ‘Can’t a husband do such a thing to his wife?

“It’s the same here, you’re the bride, you should be thankful, it’s your blessing,” the woman reportedly told Amy.

Last year, Amy and another alleged victim from Hong Kong, who recorded harrowing audio of her alleged rape, made allegations about JMS public.

He is now back in jail awaiting trial on 22 counts of assault and assault.

More victims have also come forward and some of the alleged female groomers are also facing charges.

Amy said she was threatened when she went public with her allegations against JMS.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the church for comment.

The National Advice, Information and Support Service for Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence can be reached on 1800RESPECT – 1800 737 732