In 1974 he met President Richard Nixon at the White House and urged Americans to forgive their leader for the Watergate scandal.
In 1991, he travelled to North Korea to meet then leader Kim Il-Sung for talks on inter-Korean economic cooperation projects and the reunion of separated families from the North and South.
The teachings of the Unification Church are based on the Bible but with new interpretations.
Moon saw his role as completing the unfulfilled mission of Jesus to restore humanity to a state of “sinless” purity.
In official church literature, he is referred to as the “True Father” and the “one and only messiah in human history”.
Moon’s emergence as a significant religious leader was tainted by legal problems.
Having moved to the United States in 1972, he was indicted on tax evasion charges in 1981, in what his followers insisted was a conspiracy to force him out of the country.
He was convicted and served 11 months in prison.
Moon, who returned to live in South Korea in 2006, was admitted to the intensive care of a Seoul hospital in mid-August and then shifted to the Gapyeong estate after doctors said his kidneys had ceased to function.
There was no mass mourning early Monday at the huge, mountain-ringed compound which comprises dozens of modern facilities including schools, a hospital and training centres.
But followers left numerous grief-stricken messages of loss on the church’s official website.
“I feel like the sky is falling and the whole world has collapsed,” wrote one.
“You are the eternal king of kings, the messiah of mankind. You will always live in my heart,” said another.
From Thursday, mourners will be allowed to offer prayers at an altar bearing Moon’s image in Gapyeong, and Pak said 30,000 followers had been invited from Japan.
Moon had 14 children with his second wife, Hak Ja Han. Hyung Jin Moon, the youngest of his seven sons, succeeded his father as the church’s most senior leader in 2008 at the age of 28.
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