South Korean cult leader pledges 10m dollars for task force in Marshall Islands

BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific/December 1, 2000

The South Korean cult leader, Sun Myung Moon, has offered to fund a Pacific government task force in the Marshall Islands. Officials in Majuro say Mr. Moon has pledged 10m US dollars for the development of education and fisheries programmes in the region. Plans for the task force and the offer of multi-million-dollar aid were among key results of an international conference co-sponsored by the Marshall Islands government and the Inter-religious and International Federation for World Peace, which Mr Moon founded.

One aim of the task force was to create a Pacific trading bloc to give island countries more power in their relations with Asia, the region and other major countries in trading blocs globally.