Presidents Donald Trump and Moon Jae-in. NPR/AFP.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in says that Donald Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts towards North Korea. NPR. The comment comes after a historic meeting between Moon and Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea. In a diplomatic whirlwind, much progress has been made towards denuclarization and ending the Korean War. Moon was responding to a letter from the widow of former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, who also won the Nobel Peace Prize. Moon said, "It's President Trump who should receive the Nobel Prize. We only need to take peace." If peace and denuclularization were to happen, both Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in would be front runners, but many are saying that Trump deserves it as well.
My Comment:
It's probably a bit premature to be campaigning for the Nobel Peace Prize. After all, there hasn't been an agreement just yet. It sure looks like one is coming, but a million and one things could happen between then and now that could derail the whole thing. Talking about it now is a good way to get egg on your face if the deal falls apart.
My sincere hope is that won't happen though. It seems very clear that all the players are at least attempting to make it work. With Kim Jong Un saying he will give up his nukes for a promise that the United States will not invade, it looks like a deal might happen. Plus the fact that North and South Korea have agreed to end the Korean War, which is technically still on due to ending in an armistice, not a peace deal, is a very good sign.
If it does that I think that everyone involved probably deserves a Nobel Prize. Moon Jae-in, modesty aside, definitely deserves one. His handling of the Korean crisis has been superb and his poll numbers are reflecting it. Without Moon, I don't think the Trump/Kim meeting happens. He deserves a lot of credit and should be considered a Nobel frontrunner.
Kim Jong Un probably deserves credit as well. Sure he's a bloodthirsty dictator but he's also doing the right thing. A war on the Korean peninsula would be devastating for everyone and he looks like he is serious about preventing it. And if he wasn't willing to back down and come to the negotiating table none of this would be happening.
But I also think Trump deserves quite a bit of credit for this. The naysayers are saying that Trump didn't do anything but tweet at Kim Jong Un. Though I would argue that the tweets were important, especially the ones where he hinted that the US and North Korea could be friends, that isn't anywhere near the only thing he and his government did.
Trump also put a lot of pressure on China to put the economic screws to Kim Jong Un. Trump threatened a trade war and doing so forced the Chinese to put their own sanctions on Kim. Doing so was a major departure from previous presidents and it seemed to work well. This hurt North Korea's economy and may have encouraged Kim to come to the negotiating table. And when North Korea tried to bypass sanctions, Trump cracked down hard on the people that were helping them do it.
I also think that there is a difference in respect that Trump showed the North Koreans. Though publicly it was mostly saber rattling, Trump often tweeted that he wanted to be friends with Kim Jong Un. Through back-channels, Trump indicated that he would be willing to meet with Kim, showing him a level of respect that wasn't present with other presidents. That carrot and stick approach seems to have worked and I think President Trump deserves a lot of credit for it.
Will Trump win the Nobel though? I kind of doubt it. Indeed, I could see Trump being left out on purpose while Kim Jong Un, who is still a murderous dictator, gets one. I just don't trust the Nobel Committee to do the right thing. Remember, they gave Barack Obama the prize simply for being elected and having politics they liked, before he even took the oath of office. The fact that Obama then became a warmonger that overthrew Libya's government didn't matter, only the fact that he was Obama.
My guess is that the Nobel committee hates Donald Trump and would never recognize him even if he got rid of every nuclear weapon in existence. Preventing a war doesn't matter when you are a conservative... I hope I am wrong but given how the world is these days I wouldn't be surprised.
Of course all of this is just speculation because the peace deal hasn't happened yet. It looks like it will, but until it does this is all wishful thinking. I want to be an optimist about it but you never know how things go. We have been close to peace in Korea before but time will tell if this time it will stick...
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