President Trump Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize by Norwegian Lawmakers

Two Norwegian lawmakers have nominated President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and reaching an agreement to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

Christian Tybring-Gjedde and Per-Willy Amundsen are members of Norway’s governing Progress Party and nominated the U.S. president the day after the Singapore summit, according to the Norwegian government-owned broadcaster NRK.

“What’s going on now is historic,” Per-Willy told NRK, according to Bloomberg. “A process is underway to ensure world peace in the future. It’s a fragile process, but we must of course do what we can to help this process bring good results.”

The lawmakers also told Norwegian news agency NTB that Trump “had taken a huge and important step in the direction of the disarmament, peace and reconciliation between North and South Korea,” The Associated Press reported.

Since the deadline for nominations for this year’s prize has already passed, Trump’s nomination will make him eligible for next year.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee — a committee of five people chosen by the Norwegian parliament who award the Nobel Peace Prize — receives hundreds of nominations to consider for the prize every year. This year, a record 330 people were nominated, according to Bloomberg.

This is not the first time that Trump has been nominated for the prize as a result of his efforts to bring peace to the Korean peninsula.

In April, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said that Trump deserves to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in bringing about the denuclearization talks on the Korean peninsula and the possibility of an official end to decades-long war between North and South.

“President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize,” Moon is said to have told a meeting of senior secretaries, according to a Korean official who briefed the media. “What we need is only peace.”

Following the South Korean president’s informal nomination, a group of 18 Republican members of Congress signed their names to a letter formally nominating Trump for the prize in May.

The letter was sent by Rep. Luke Messer of Indiana to the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Wednesday and signed on to by 17 other House GOP members, including Reps. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Diane Black and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Steve King of Iowa to name some.

In the letter, the lawmakers commend Trump for working “tirelessly to apply maximum pressure on North Korea to end its illicit weapons program and bring peace to the region.”

“His Administration successfully united the international community, including China, to impose one of the most international sanctions regimes in history,” which “have been largely credited for bringing North Korea to the negotiating table,” they said.

After roughly five hours of talks between Trump and Kim in Singapore on Tuesday, the two leaders emerged from the summit with an agreement that includes the “complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.”

“President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” read the preamble of the document, according to the New York Post.

The two countries also agreed to work toward “peace and prosperity,” a “stable peace” on the peninsula, to work “toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” and to commit to “recovering POW/MIA remains including the immediate reparations of those already identified.”

Trump acknowledged that denuclearization won’t happen overnight, but said, “Once you start the process it means it’s pretty much over.” (For more from the author of “President Trump Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize by Norwegian Lawmakers” please click HERE)

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