Tongil Group is a
South Korean business group (
chaebol) associated with the
Unification Church. (“Tongil” is Korean for “unification,” the name of the Unification Church in Korean is “Tongilgyo.”) It was founded in 1963 by Unification Church founder
Sun Myung Moon (following the purchase of a surplus Japanese
lathe in 1962) as a
nonprofit organization which would provide revenue for the church. Its core focus was manufacturing but in the 1970s and 1980s it expanded by founding or acquiring businesses in pharmaceuticals, tourism, and publishing.