Michael Breen | |
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Born | |
Nationality | British |
Occupation | Writer |
Michael Breen (born 31 July 1963) is an English author, consultant and journalist covering North and South Korea.
Breen writes occasional opinion columns for international and South Korean media. Since 2000, he has written a featured column for The Korea Times , an English-language daily in South Korea, where he comments on South Korean society, culture, and political issues. [1]
Breen is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh and first began living in South Korea in 1982. [2] He was the correspondent in Korea for The Guardian and the Washington Times . [3] In 1987, he became the first non-Korean president of the Seoul Foreign Correspondents Club. In 1994, he became a management consultant specializing in North Korea, with clients such as Coca-Cola. He entered the public relations field in 1999 as the managing director of Merit/Burson-Marsteller, where he remained until 2004. He is the founder and CEO of Insight Communications Consultants, a Seoul-based public relations firm. Breen was made an honorary citizen of Seoul in 2001.
A former follower and biographer of the controversial Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon, Breen was described in a 2005 American Prospect story as having brokered talks in the early 1990s between Moon and the North Korean leadership, laying groundwork for a visit by the staff of Moon's Washington Times . [4] Breen has also authored an unauthorized biography of Moon, Sun Myung Moon: The Early Years. [5]
![]() | This article's "criticism" or "controversy" section may compromise the article's neutrality .(March 2015) |
On 25 December 2009, Breen wrote a satirical column in the paper which lampooned various South Korean public figures, including president Lee Myung-bak, singer Rain, and Samsung. Displeased with Breen's allusions to their corruption and arrogance, Samsung filed civil and criminal suits against him and the paper for libel. After an apology and after Breen told prosecutors during interrogation that the column was his own idea, the paper was dropped as a respondent, but the suit against Breen himself remained. [6] [7] One South Korean media outlet claimed that the entire column as an insult to the country of South Korea itself. [8] [9] [10] Samsung dropped the civil suit after an apology by Breen. The criminal case went to trial but was thrown out by the judge on the grounds that there was "no victim."
Sun Myung Moon was a Korean religious leader, also known for his business ventures and support for conservative political causes. A messiah claimant, he was the founder of the Unification Church, whose members consider him and his wife Hak Ja Han to be their "True Parents", and of its widely noted "Blessing" or mass wedding ceremonies. The author of the Unification Church's religious scripture, the Divine Principle, he was an anti-communist and an advocate for Korean reunification, for which he was recognized by the governments of both North and South Korea. Businesses he promoted included News World Communications, an international news media corporation known for its American subsidiary The Washington Times, and Tongil Group, a South Korean business group (chaebol), as well as other related organizations.
The Washington Times is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It covers general interest topics with an emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout Washington, D.C. and the greater Washington metropolitan area, including suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia. It also publishes a subscription-based weekly tabloid edition aimed at a national audience.
Bo Hi Pak was a prominent member of the Unification Church. During the 1970s and 1980s, he was a major leader in the church movement, leading projects such as newspapers, schools, performing arts projects, political projects such as the anti-communist organization CAUSA International, and was president of the Unification Church International 1977–1991. He was also the president of Little Angels Children's Folk Ballet of Korea.
Lee Byung-chul was a South Korean businessman who founded the Samsung Group, the country's largest chaebol (conglomerate). Lee founded Samsung in 1938, at the age of 28. He is recognized as the most successful businessman in South Korea's history.
The Korea Times (Korean: 코리아타임스) is a daily English-language newspaper in South Korea. It is a sister paper of the Hankook Ilbo, a major Korean-language daily.
The Unification Church (Korean: 통일교) is a new religious movement derived from Christianity, whose members are called Unificationists or sometimes informally Moonies. Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012) began gaining followers after the Second World War. On 1 May 1954 in Seoul, South Korea, Moon formally founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC), the Unification Church's full name, until 1994, when it was officially changed to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. It has a presence in approximately 100 countries around the world. Its leaders are Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han, whom their followers honor with the title "True Parents".
Seongnam FC is a South Korean professional football club based in Seongnam that competes in the K League 2, the second tier of South Korean football. Founded in 1989 as Ilhwa Chunma Football Club, the club has won seven national league titles, three FA Cups, three League Cups, and two AFC Champions League titles. Seongnam also placed fifth in the IFFHS Asian Clubs of the 20th century.
The Lotte Giants are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Busan. They are a member of the KBO League. The Lotte Giants are owned by Lotte Corporation.
Chung Mong-koo is a South Korean business magnate. He is the honorary chairman and former CEO of Hyundai Motor Group, Korea's second largest chaebol that manages 54 subsidiaries including Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, and Hyundai Steel. He started his career in 1970, joining the engineering & construction division of the group. Chung succeeded his father, Chung Ju-yung, the founder of the conglomerate known as the Hyundai Group. When the conglomerate split into several parts in 1999, Chung Mong-koo took over the Hyundai Motor division. He is the eldest surviving son of Chung Ju-yung's eight sons.
News World Communications Inc. is an American international news media corporation.
Lee Myung-bak often referred to by his initials MB, is a South Korean businessman and politician who served as the 10th president of South Korea from 2008 to 2013. Before his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, and the mayor of Seoul from 2002 to 2006.
Nansook Hong, is the author of the autobiography, In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family, published in 1998 by Little, Brown and Company. It gave her account of her life up to that time, including her marriage to Hyo Jin Moon, the first son of Unification Church founder and leader Sun Myung Moon and his wife Hakja Han Moon.
Formerly a single nation that was annexed by Japan in 1910, the Korean Peninsula has been divided into North Korea and South Korea since the end of World War II on 2 September 1945. The two governments were founded in the two regions in 1948, leading to the consolidation of division. The two countries engaged in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953 which ended in an armistice agreement but without a peace treaty. North Korea is a one-party state run by the Kim family. South Korea was formerly governed by a succession of military dictatorships, save for a brief one-year democratic period from 1960 to 1961, until thorough democratization in 1987, after which direct elections were held. Both nations claim the entire Korean Peninsula and outlying islands. Both nations joined the United Nations in 1991 and are recognized by most member states. Since the 1970s, both nations have held informal diplomatic dialogues in order to ease military tensions.
The Universal Ballet was founded in Seoul, South Korea in 1984. One of only five professional ballet companies in South Korea, the company performs a repertory that includes many full length classical story ballets, together with shorter contemporary works and original full-length Korean ballets created especially for the company. The company is supported by followers of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, with Moon's daughter-in-law Julia H. Moon, who was the company's prima ballerina until 2001, now serving as General Director.
Tongil Group is a Korean business group (chaebol) associated with the Unification Church. It was founded in 1963 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon as a nonprofit organization which would provide revenue for the Unification Church. Its core focus was manufacturing but in the 1970s and 1980s it expanded by founding or acquiring businesses in pharmaceuticals, tourism, and publishing.
Donald Kirk is a veteran correspondent and author on conflict and crisis from Southeast Asia to the Middle East to Northeast Asia. Kirk has covered wars from Vietnam to Iraq, focusing on political, diplomatic, economic and social as well as military issues. He is also known for his reporting on North Korea, including the nuclear crisis, human rights and payoffs from South to North Korea preceding the June 2000 inter-Korean summit.[1]
During the 2007 South Korean presidential election, there were allegations made about presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak's relationship with a company called BBK. In 1999, Lee would meet Kim, with whom he established BBK and the LKE Bank. Their business enterprise went bankrupt less than a year later. Kim was investigated for alleged involvement in the massive embezzlement and for alleged stock price-manipulation.
The Slingshot is a 2009 South Korean television series starring Park Yong-ha, Park Si-yeon, Kim Kang-woo, Han Yeo-woon, Lee Phillip, and Park Ki-woong. It aired on KBS2 from April 6 to June 9, 2009, on Mondays and Tuesdays at 21:55 for 20 episodes.
Park Young-sun is a South Korean journalist-turned politician previously served as the second Minister of SMEs and Startups under President Moon Jae-in from April 2019 to 2021 and the first woman to lead SME-specialised government entity since its creation in 1996. Park is also a four-term parliamentarian of Democratic Party.
MBC TV is a South Korean free-to-air television channel and is considered the first private company in South Korea launched on 8 August 1969 and owned by Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation.
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