SEOUL — The government of Seoul has asked for a murder investigation into leaders of a Christian sect at the centre of the country's deadly coronavirus outbreak, saying the church was liable for its refusal to cooperate with efforts to stop the disease.

A large majority of the more than 4,000 confirmed cases of the South Korean outbreak, the largest outside China and still growing, have been linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive movement that reveres founder Lee Man-hee.