Articles by Michael Breen
Lee's social media posts and the elephant in the Blue House
President Lee Jae Myung’s recent splurge of social media posts represents a novel attempt to tackle a familiar problem. His three immediate predecessors all had X (formerly Twitter) accounts, but their use of the platform was modest. Lee is hipper than they were on this front. Last month, he averaged four posts a day, a personal record. So far in October, he has averaged six. What explains this?
The peace talks that are not going to happen
There is something admirable about the government's determination to talk to North Korea. There is also something increasingly disconnected from reality about it. On Wednesday, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young told a parliamentary audit that last month’s land mine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) had made the need for “fundamental peace” on the Korean Peninsula “ever more crucial.” He is right about the need.
When 'the people' become the problem
Amid the yelling and screaming at the current round of National Assembly confirmation hearings, there is a quiet irony at the heart of democracy that is easy to miss. The system is supposed to be government of the people, by the people and for the people. Yet one of the weaknesses of Korean democracy, from the outset and still evident today, is that its political leaders care too much about what “the people” think. That sounds counterintuitive. What is our columnist smoking?
What is wrong with interfering in politics?
The sentencing of Han Hak-ja, the leader of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, and the trial of Shincheonji leader Lee Man-hee raise a question that does not seem to get asked very often in Korea: Why are churches and some social organizations so restricted in their involvement in politics while others aren’t? Han, 83, and legally blind, was sentenced this week to two years in prison after being found guilty of political funding and other offences.
NK peace - The Korea Times
Are we on the cusp of change in Korea? It is a question that makes us reach for our helmets in this part of the world. For decades, the pattern has been remarkably consistent: crises, talks and tensions, all managed so superbly under the American umbrella that North Korea has been held in check and South Korea has become a major industrial power. Two developments this week suggest that the tectonic plates under the peninsula might shift.
Restoring Continence After Devastating Post-Obstetric Fistula Repair Incontinence: A Pilot Study Comparing Cystoscopic vs Periurethral Bulkamid
Conflicts of Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Data Availability Statement The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions. Data is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Why don't we like our neighbors?
Moving into a new office recently reminded me of something that seems to typify life in Seoul. We're not very neighborly. It's not that we're unfriendly people once you get to know us. Quite the opposite. It's simply that, with neighbors and strangers alike, we tend to keep our distance, engaging only when necessary.
Korea doesn't bully just foreign companies
In the spirit of the new normal of criticizing allies, Washington recently complained out loud that American companies are being unfairly treated in Korea. The State Department flagged “significant concerns” over the “fake news” law, which went into effect this month. This followed a scathing House Judiciary Committee report that said Seoul was engaged in a “harassment campaign” against U.S. businesses, particularly the e-commerce giant Coupang.
Read the room or lose the market: Lessons from South Korea’s latest corporate gaffes
TWO recent controversies, both playing out in Seoul but with global implications, offer the corporate world a hard lesson about survival in the digital era. The first involved the Disney+ drama Perfect Crown, a romantic fantasy starring the singer IU that became one of the most globally watched Korean series – until mid-May, when it stood accused of depicting Korea as a vassal state to China.
Towards a Missional Ecclesiology
Recommended Citation Breen, Michael James (2017) "Towards a Missional Ecclesiology," Witness: Vol. 31: Iss. 1, Article 11. Available at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/witness_aete/vol31/iss1/11 DOWNLOADS Since June 20, 2026 COinS
Bye-bye left and right: Korea's politics needs a new vocabulary - The Korea Times
If you have been following the protests at Seoul's Olympic Park over election mishandling, you will know that the protesters insist they are neither left nor right. Many commentators have welcomed this as evidence of a younger generation's independence from old political loyalties. I think the protesters are onto something more profound: a reality that much of political commentary has yet to recognize.
Convergent molecular signatures across eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder in the human brain
Keywords anorexia nervosa obsessive-compulsive disorder cortico-striatal systems brain transcriptomics genetics Research topic(s) CP: neuroscience Introduction Eating disorders (EDs), particularly anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are complex neuropsychiatric conditions, each defined by distinct clinical manifestations yet sharing common behaviors and motivations.1,2,3,4,5,6 The genetic overlap between these disorders is increasingly supported...
Was the Starbucks Korea Tank Day fiasco caused by AI?
When Starbucks Korea launched its “Tank Day” coffee promotion on May 18 — the day South Koreans commemorate the 1980 massacre of protestors in Gwangju by martial law troops — the scale of corporate self-sabotage was astonishing. Public outrage erupted so quickly that even asking how such a disaster happened risked sounding like an attempt to excuse it.
S. Koreans may see North's footballers as sisters, but opposite isn't true
When North Korea’s Naegohyang Women’s FC arrives in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, this weekend for next Wednesday’s AFC Women’s Champions League semifinals, South Koreans will witness something rare: Young North Koreans walking openly among them again. The visit itself rings historic bells. This will be the first North Korean women’s football team to compete in the South since the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.
HYBE case raises uncomfortable questions about legal reform
Such is the never-ending drama of corporate malfeasance that when police this week sought an arrest warrant for Bang Si-hyuk, founder and chairman of HYBE, the company behind BTS, my first thought was: Here we go again. But this case is about more than a familiar cycle of scandal and outrage. It is a test of something far larger: whether Korea’s recent judicial reforms, championed by the current government, represent a genuine shift in principle or merely a reshuffling of power.
When my colleague is my enemy
Here is a question for anyone who has a job: Who is your competitor? In our capitalist system, it’s the people selling rival products or services. For the hairdresser, it’s the other shop down the street. For the auto worker, it’s the foreign auto sales rooms. For the performer, it’s the other show. For the official, it’s the other person or agency competing for votes or budget. Rivalry of this sort is good.
BTS concert numbers - The Korea Times
What do the widely different BTS crowd estimates say about the media? Readers may have noticed that local and international news reports in the lead-up to the BTS comeback concert last weekend said that 260,000 fans would be descending on downtown Seoul, making it one of the most thrilling non-protest events in the city center since the 2002 World Cup.
Are we moving away from unification as main national objective?
Two years ago, when North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made what he called a “final and crucial decision” to give up on the reunification of the two Koreas, we on this side of the DMZ didn’t know what to make of it. But now, having had time to think, is South Korea slowly swinging around to the obvious — that the commitment to unify with a neighbor that doesn’t want us risks violation of our democratic principles?
A transcriptional program associated with neurotransmission in the living human brain - Molecular Psychiatry
|
Abstract At the foundation of neurotransmission, and by extension at the foundation of brain function, are coordinated programs of gene expression involving many thousands of genes. These programs are poorly defined in humans because most modern studies that characterize human brain gene expression use tissue obtained in the postmortem state when neurotransmission and brain function have ceased.
By Alexander W. Charney, Lora E. Liharska, Eric Vornholt, Alissa Valentine, Anina Lund, Alice Hashemi, Ryan Thompson, Terry Lohrenz, Jessica Johnson, Nicole Bussola, Esther Cheng, Salman E Qasim, Alisha Aristel, Lillian Wilkins, Kimia Ziafat, Hannah Silk, Lisa M. Linares, Brendan J. Sullivan, Claudia Feng, Seth R. Batten, Dan Bang, Leonardo Barbosa, Thomas Twomey, Jason WHite, Jason White, Marina Vannucci, Beniamino Hadj-Amar, Emily Moya, Martijn Figee, Girish N. Nadkarni, Michael Breen, Kenneth T. Kishida, Joseph Scarpa, Eric E. Schadt, Ignacio Saez, P. Read Montague, Noam D Beckmann, Brian H Kopell
|
Nature
Verified
How eager should we be to reopen dialogue with North Korea?
How important is it to do whatever we can to get talks going again with North Korea? I ask because Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of Kim Jong-un, said something vaguely nice last week and a lot of people seem to be feeling warm and fuzzy and a wee bit excited about it. The prioritizing of dialogue is a profound question because it goes to the heart of what divides the political left and right in democratic South Korea.
When politicians issue verdicts before the courts do — Korea barely blinks - The Korea Times
When President Lee Jae-myung, earlier this month, publicly suggested that two unpopular religious movements — Shincheonji and the Family Federation (informally known as the Unification Church) — should be considered for disbandment before courts had established any wrongdoing, one might have expected a loud and immediate debate about liberty. When I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago, I assumed others would do the same. But there was remarkably little from the commentariat.
Why former President Yoon will not be executed
When prosecutors earlier this month demanded the death penalty for former President Yoon Suk Yeol for insurrection, the most important thing to understand was not what they were asking for, but what they were not going to get. This may not be apparent to readers overseas, but Yoon will not be executed. He will not even come close. Everyone in Korea knows this, including the prosecutors who made the request, the politicians cheering them and the judges who will eventually rule on it.
President Lee, religious leaders call for 'heretical' religions to be disbanded
The call this week by major religious leaders, backed by President Lee Jae Myung, to disband two minor religions — the Unification Church and Shincheonji — for being “illegitimate” and “heretical” reveals an astonishing misreading of the basic values that underpin Korea’s democracy. That the religious leaders wish to see off pesky, cultish rivals is at least understandable, given their particular focus as heads of faith groups jostling in the highly competitive marketplace of Korean religion.
Memories of Dec. 12: Why comparing Yoon to Chun Doo-hwan misses the mark
Every year, this day – "shibi shibi" (12.12, or Dec. 12), as it is called, arrives cloaked in furtive shadow in the collective memory. To young people today, it is just another date on the calendar, but for many of us, it remains indelibly associated with the decade that delayed democracy. We, perhaps unreasonably, blame one man for that: Chun Doo-hwan.
Does the Prime Minister not understand justice in a democracy?
If you ever needed a reminder of how fragile Korea’s separation of powers really is, Prime Minister Kim Min-seok provided one this week, wrapped neatly in a Cabinet-meeting sound bite. His comments seemed familiar enough. He was talking about the slow pace of the legal process surrounding former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s abrupt declaration of martial law, which shocked us so much this time last year.
When hate becomes a crime, what happens to politics?
After President Lee Jae Myung ordered a crackdown on hate speech and disinformation last week, I couldn’t help wondering if he’d really thought it through. I mean, can we even do politics if people can’t hate? Let’s be honest: Politics is the pursuit of power. It runs on fear. The winning strategy is to frighten voters — about immigrants, communists, Nazis, economic collapse, war, the neighbor’s dog — and blame the other side for it.
When the doctor is wrong, the patient gets worse
Shortly after arriving in Korea, I developed an ingrown toenail and went to a hospital. “You’ve got an ingrowing toenail,” the doctor said. He was right. The bloody thing was burrowing into my big toe, which was red and swollen. I assumed it was caused by tight shoes. He offered to take it out there and then. I won’t describe the procedure in full technicolor, but it was quick and sanguinary. The hospital was the cheapest one downtown, and the doctor was a young man with a mop-top fringe.
Religion, politics, payback: Why the jailing of Han Hak-ja feels familiar
When prosecutors this week jailed Han Hak-ja — the 83-year-old leader of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, more commonly known as the Unification Church — the move drew swift condemnation from followers abroad and their political allies, including figures in Washington. They saw it as a step too far and a breach of Korea’s constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.
A nation divided: Charlie Kirk’s murder and America's moral crisis
The murder in Utah last week of conservative personality Charlie Kirk has not just highlighted the political gulf separating Americans. It has also exposed the moral confusion that reigns as left and right do battle, each thinking it is more virtuous than the other. There is no question the murder shocked the nation. Kirk, founder of the student group Turning Point USA, was a polarizing figure.
Political 'purge or revolution' in Korea
Political 'purge or revolution' in Korea Go to Top
Obscured by clouds
On May 21, when North Korea’s navy attempted to launch its second destroyer, the Kang Kon—with the country’s Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un, looking on—the ceremony ended in disaster. As the ship accidentally slid off its cradle into Kyŏngsŏng Bay, the weight of the vessel crushed and ruptured parts of the hull, leaving the ship’s stern stuck underwater for two weeks.
If people want to go to North Korea, why not let them go?
If people want to go to North Korea, why not let them go? Go to Top
Obscured by clouds
On May 21, when North Korea’s navy attempted to launch its second destroyer, the Kang Kon—with the country’s Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un, looking on—the ceremony ended in disaster. As the ship accidentally slid off its cradle into Kyŏngsŏng Bay, the weight of the vessel crushed and ruptured parts of the hull, leaving the ship’s stern stuck underwater for two weeks.
What should we expect when Lee meets Trump?
What should we expect when Lee meets Trump? Go to Top
Did former President Yoon try to provoke North Korea to attack?
Did former President Yoon try to provoke North Korea to attack? Go to Top
OPINION: How to assess the candidates who want to be our next president?
SEOUL, April 15 (AJP) - With the country facing an unexpected presidential election on June 3, after several months of political turmoil, we need to ask ourselves what we want of the next national leader and what qualities he needs to possess. There are three aspects to this question and, while voters may place their emphasis on one rather than on the other two, all three are important.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Michael
Contact Michael, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack