Donald Trump says ‘everyone thinks’ he should get Nobel peace prize
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Version 0 of 1. US President Donald Trump said that “everyone thinks” he deserves a Nobel peace prize for his work to improve relations with North Korea. Mr Trump was asked if he thinks he deserves the prestigious award - give to his predecessor President Barack Obama in 2009 - and he said: “Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it”. Mr Trump is expected to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to discuss having the hermit kingdom stop developing its nuclear weapons programme and the release of three American prisoners earlier today after years in captivity. “I want to get it finished. The prize I want is victory for the world, not even here. I want victory for the world because that’s what we’re talking about. So that’s the only prize I want," Mr Trump said. His comments come on the heels of a historic meeting between Mr Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) to sign the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula during the Inter-Korean Summit and officially ended the war that began when the north and south split in a battle over communism and democracy that began on 25 June 1950. Though Mr Moon had run for president on a platform of adopting the “sunshine policy” of increasing and improving economic ties with the North, he suggested that Mr Trump receive the prize and said the bombastic US leader deserves credit for the peace agreement. Mr Trump said it was “very nice” of Mr Moon to suggest it but noted: “I want to get peace. The main thing, we want to get peace”. After the summit on Friday morning, the US president immediately tweeted: “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!” implying that he played an important part in it. “When I began, people were saying that was an impossibility,” Mr Trump said meeting with US Winter Olympics athletes who participated in this year’s games in South Korea. “They said there were two alternatives: Let them have what they have, or go to war. And now we have a much better alternative than anybody thought even possible”. For the first year of Mr Trump’s time in the White House he routinely traded diplomatic barbs with Mr Kim, calling him “rocket man” repeatedly and even during a United Nations speech. Mr Kim in return called Mr Trump a “dotard” and continued developing intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities. The time, date, and place of Mr Trump’s meeting with Mr Kim have not been publicly announced as yet. |