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Wed, June 20, 2018 | 08:39

Opinion > Columnists > Michael Breen >

Kim Jong-un: May we dare to hope?

Reaction in South Korea, and indeed across the world, to the first summit between the leaders of the United States and North Korea has, as you would expect in this age of social media, been loud and mixed. But if you cut away opinion, which is set alight by reluctance to credit the players - North Korea's Kim Jong-un, U.S. President Donald Trump and, here in South Korea, President Moon Jae-in - and if you discount the impatient expectation of some kind of Versailles-peace-treaty-in-a-day - there is a common thread to the reaction.

Michael Breen | 2018-06-13 13:46

Hopes for peace in Korea never higher

Hopes for a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula have never been higher than they are today. But that doesn't mean, as some seem to think, that it already happened last Friday when North Korea's Kim Jong-un stepped dramatically into South Korea. Yes, it's going to be hard work, many say, but let's not be negative and dwell on that too much.

Michael Breen | 2018-05-02 17:10

[Roundtable] Moon rises as the stars align over Koreas

As he approaches the second year of his term in office _ normally the moment in Korea's “imperial presidency” system when the traditional resentment against leadership is unleashed and approval ratings begin the inexorable lurch south _ the stars are strangely aligning for President Moon Jae-in.

Michael Breen | 2018-04-15 15:43

[Roundtable] Kim Jong-un's point of view on cross-border summit

Why are we paying for North Korea?

Now that North Korea has decided to send some athletes and artists here for next month's Winter Olympics, two questions occur: Why is South Korea paying North Korea's costs? And, second, does this payment violate the United Nations' international sanctions on North Korea?

Michael Breen | 2018-01-23 17:04

Underlying conflict

With little North Korea - its population is less than that of greater Seoul - unlikely to give up nuclear weapons, it seems this issue will only be resolved when the two Koreas address the underlying conflict that drives them to arm themselves in the first place. Here is the issue. Unlike all other neighboring states today, the two Koreas claim sovereignty over one another. And even though the South has become an advanced economy and a modern democracy, and even though the North stumbles along as a weak, backward dictatorship, neither has taken a single step to alter that posture.

Michael Breen | 2017-11-06 16:40

Politics of vulgarity

For the last year, Donald J. Trump has been the most-talked-about person in the world. From the dinner tables of Reykjavik to the student canteens in Auckland, we’re all doing it. Every day, there is new fodder, provided by Trump’s own tweets, by videos of him giving funny looks and by the main newspapers in America, which have lost their pretense of serving as neutral watchdogs and now function as the machinery of opposition. I imagine - because I don’t know, really - the conversations have run the gamut from “What has gotten into these American voters?” to “He’s going to start World War Th...

Michael Breen | 2017-07-24 17:12

Peace treaty with North Korea

President Moon Jae-in’s historic call last week for a peace treaty to replace the 1953 ceasefire and finally end the Korean War seems to be the most sensible way out of the escalating confrontation with North Korea over its nuclear weapons. But such a course of action is fraught with complications. That is because the rivalry between the two Koreas is by its very nature a war without end. A peace treaty will be a ceasefire by another name. That does not mean it should not be pursued. But if South Korea and its allies fail to take this underlying reality into account, they may, in pursuing pe...

Michael Breen | 2017-07-10 18:18

Manifest destiny Korean style

Every country, it seems, likes to give the impression that it is going somewhere. All publish economic statistics and aim for growth. But the fact remains that some are more purposeful, more driven, than others. Korea is one.

Michael Breen | 2017-06-27 17:27

Koreans are constantly evolving breed

Should we say no to a unified team?

President Moon’s proposal that North and South Korea field a joint team at the Winter Olympics next year raises a question: would it be okay to use the occasion to protest against North Korea? What I have in mind is a few tents in Gangwon Province. Such occupy Wall Street-type temporary homes have been all the rage in Seoul for a few years now and would get a lot of media attention if set up at the right strategic spots.

Michael Breen | 2017-06-26 17:35

Who are Korea's real allies?

The decision by President Moon Jae-in to reconsider the deployment by the U.S. forces Korea of a THAAD battery has prompted commentary in some quarters about how South Korea should re-position itself in relation to the two superpowers. But the link between the specifics of this missile defense issue to broad strategic questions is fraught with distractions. The THAAD matter involves three moving parts, each with its own logic. The first concerns the tactical ability, or lack thereof, of the defense system to protect us folk in South Korea against North Korean missiles.

Michael Breen | 2017-06-12 18:01

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