AP 08/30 1242 Attic Deaths By PAUL SHIN Associated Press Writer YONGIN, South Korea (AP)

AP 08/30 1242 Attic Deaths

   By PAUL SHIN Associated Press Writer

   YONGIN,  South  Korea (AP) -- A cult leader called "Benevolent
Mother" and 31 disciples took drugs and strangled each other in a
murder-suicide  pact  after  police  began  probing  charges  she
swindled $8.7 million, police said Sunday.

   Park  Soon-ja,  her  three  adult  children  and  the 28 other
followers apparently swallowed poison or powerful drugs on Friday
and let themselves be strangled with rope and cloth in the  attic
of  the  cult's  factory,  said  police  officials,  who spoke on
condition of anonymity.

   They said  the  last  man  left  alive,  factory  manager  Lee
Kyung-soo, hanged himself.

   "It seems  to  be  a murder-suicide case.  It's really hard to
believe," said one police officer. "This woman built an empire."

   Mrs.  Park's husband, Lee Ki-jung, found the bodies  Saturday.
Police  said  then there were 33 dead, but said Sunday there were
32.  They did not explain the discrepancy.

   The pajama-clad bodies were piled atop each other,  many  with
rope  or  cloth  cords  tied  around their necks and tissue paper
stuffed in mouths and nostrils.  Nearby were  five  red  candles,
drug bottles and rubber gloves.

   The  dead  included  28  women and four men, with the youngest
victim a 17-year-old girl, police  said.    They  said  autopsies
would be performed on some bodies.

   Sobbing  relatives  emerged  from  the building during the day
after identifying victims and tried to comfort each other.    One
man said he had lost his wife and two daughters.

   Police  surrounded  the building, and National Police Director
Kwon Bok-kyung visited the factory to oversee the investigation.

   Police said Mrs.  Park, 48, and the followers hid in the attic
after police began investigating allegations  she  swindled  $8.7
million from about 220 followers.

   They  said  the woman and some followers disappeared Wednesday
from the central city of Taejon, where she ran a  charity,  after
learning police were seeking her for questioning.

   On  Friday,  police  visited  the  factory in Yongin, 50 miles
south of Seoul.  Officials said they  removed  about  49  people,
mainly children, but did not find Mrs.  Park.

   Police  said  the  cult  forced  some  children to work in the
factory, which produced ornate Korean chests,  pottery  and  toys
for sale to tourists.

   Mrs.   Park was last seen alive early Friday by a maid who had
been taking the group food in the factory attic, police said.

   The cult persuaded followers to give up all their  possessions
and give  Mrs.    Park their unquestioning devotion, police said.
Mrs.  Park, who claimed to act on the orders of God, taught  that
the world was corrupt and about to be destroyed.

   Followers  lived  and worked in the factory and other centers,
isolating themselves from society, police said.

   Park Hyung-in, who feared her elder sister was among the dead,
said  the  cult  practiced  an  extreme  and  frenzied  form   of
Christianity and called their enclosed community "paradise."

   She said the cult taught that members would go to heaven alive
if they followed Mrs.  Park's teachings.

   Police  said Sunday up to 130 people may have lived and worked
at the factory and they were  searching  for  residents  not  yet
accounted for.

   Mrs.    Park   was   known  as  a  leading  businesswoman  and
philanthropist, police said.  People  impressed  by  her  charity
system  for  orphans  and  the  homeless loaned her large sums of
money on which they received interest, officers said.

   Police officials said they began investigating the cult  after
followers  beat two people who tried to get their money back from
Mrs.  Park.

   Villagers who lived near the isolated factory in a wooded area
at the foot of a mountain said they had virtually no contact with
the cult members and little idea of what went on at the secretive
facility.