South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, has suggested US President, Donald Trump, should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on account of his efforts to put a stop to the stand-off over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.
This high praise follows last weeks summit where Seoul and Pyongyang pledged to work together for ‘complete denuclearisation,’ ending six decades of tension on the Korean Peninsula.
This historic moment was the very first inter-Korean summit in over a decade, with both leaders pledging to put an official end to the Korean War.
The peace accord, signed by both leaders, has been called the Panmunjom Declaration, named after the truce village where the discussions were held.
According to Reuters, President Moon told senior secretaries:
President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize. What we need is only peace.
Moon reportedly made the suggestion after the late South Korean President, Kim Dae-jung’s widow, Lee Hee-ho, sent a congratulatory message claiming President Moon was deserving of the prize for his peacemaking efforts.
Back in January 2018, Moon also praised President Trump, stating:
[Trump] deserves big credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks. It could be a resulting work of the U.S.-led sanctions and pressure.
Find out more more about the famously Twitter-happy US President below:
According to The Guardian, North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, said:
We hope we will not repeat the mistake of the past. I hope this will be an opportunity for the Korean people to move freely from North to South. We need to take responsibility for our own history.
We have waited for this day for a very long time. We are tied by blood and cannot be separated – we are the same country, the same people, and should not be separated by hostility.
We hope we can open a new road towards a new future, and that is why I crossed the demarcation line today. We hope for a new era of peace, and we have reaffirmed our commitment to that.
Tweeting after the declaration was announced, President Trump said:
KOREAN WAR TO END! The United States, and all of its GREAT people, should be very proud of what is now taking place in Korea!
Efforts to reconcile have already begun. North Korea has now moved its time zone by half an hour to align with South Korea, while South Korea have pledged to stop blaring propaganda over the border through the use of loudspeakers.
Both presidents have agreed to hold regular telephone communication. They’ll also meet more often, beginning with a Pyongyang summit this coming autumn.
Kim Jong-un informed President Moon, US and South Korea how experts and journalists would be invited to watch the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site being taken apart.
Going forward, Kim Jong-un and President Trump will meet at a summit which has been planned for late May or early June.
Hopefully the world can now begin to breathe a tentative sigh of relief…
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.