President Lee Jae Myung has called for an end to corrupt ties between politicians and religious groups, saying such collusion could set the country on a path to destruction.

At a press conference Wednesday to mark the new year, Lee said the systematic exploitation of people’s religious beliefs as a political tool is unacceptable, likening it to pointing guns at the public during an insurgency.

The president cited media reports suggesting the Shincheonji religious group has interfered in politics since the early 2000s and that the Unification Church has also intervened heavily in politics.

Lee said some Protestant churches have also begun to make overtly political comments and hinted at the possibility of expanding an ongoing prosecution-police investigation to include Protestant churches.

Addressing the delayed launch of the special counsel probe he’d previously instructed to get to the bottom of the situation, the president accused the main opposition People Power Party of hiding behind disagreements over the scope of the investigation as a deliberate delay tactic because the opposition party doesn’t want the case to move forward.