Gold watch overshadows South Korean sect leader's Covid-19 apology

Lee Man-hee, founder and leader of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony, bows ahead of a news conference at his villa in Gapyeong, South Korea, on March 2, 2020. - Reuters/Yonhap

GAPYEONG, South Korea (Reuters): When the elderly leader of a South Korean religious sect knelt before the nation on Monday (March 2), he had hoped to defuse public anger over his church's role in spreading the coronavirus.

Yet Lee Man-hee's apology for the national "calamity" instead whipped up more outrage - due to a watch he was wearing.