Founder of South Korea’s biggest church, Cho Yong-gi, dies

By HYUNG-JIN KIM
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The Rev. Cho Yong-gi, whose founding of South Korea’s biggest church once symbolized the postwar growth of Christianity in the country before that achievement was tainted by corruption and other scandals, has died. He was 85. Seoul’s Yoido Full Gospel Church says Cho passed away at a hospital on Tuesday. It says Cho had been treated there since he collapsed due to a cerebral hemorrhage in July last year. Cho started his church in Seoul with five worshippers in 1958. The church says it had more than 700,000 members in 1993, making it the world’s biggest church congregation according to Guinness World Records.