World Notes SOUTH KOREA

The police had more than a few questions for Park Soon Ja, but the 48-year-old woman was nowhere to be found. The entrepreneur from Taejon, 100 miles south of Seoul, owed 220 people more than $10 million. She was last seen in mid- August, when 13 of her employees severely beat two creditors who had tried to collect money owed them. Even Park's husband Lee Kee Chung did not seem to know where she was.

Last week Lee made a grisly discovery: the corpses of 28 women and four men in the attic of his wife's factory. The victims, dead for 24 hours, were bound and gagged except for one, who turned out to be Park. Police say Park committed suicide, while the others, most of whom had worked for her, were strangled or swallowed lethal pills. Authorities suggest that Park, who was given to apocalyptic rantings, was the leader of a cult; with debts mounting in this world, she simply decided to lead her flock on to the next.