Sun Myung Moon, a self-declared messiah and founder of the Unification Church, has died aged 92.

He leaves millions of followers, known as "Moonies", and a South Korean-based global empire of religious and business interests.

From 1961 until recently, he oversaw mass weddings at which thousands were matched with spouses they sometimes had just met and who, in some cases, did not even speak the same language.

Moon believed he was chosen by Jesus Christ to continue the work of establishing an ideal world of peace and harmony.

But critics vilified his ministry as a heretical, and dangerous cult, and questioned its murky finances.

Though its following has fallen in recent years, at its peak in the early 1990s it was believed to have as many as 7 million adherents in 180 nations.

Moon died of complications from pneumonia at a church retreat east of the South Korean capital Seoul where he was moved last week after being hospitalised in mid-August, church officials said.

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