Simon Cowell and sartorial elegance. Piers Morgan and humility. The cast of TOWIE and intelligence. There are some combinations that simply don’t go together, and ‘Kim Jong-un and peace’ would be another to add to the list.
But the North Korean supremo showed a more cuddly side to his normal nuclear weapon toting self by agreeing to meet with the South Korean leader, Moon Jae-in. He became the first North Korean head honcho to do so since the end of the war in 1953.
The pair shook hands at the border and even enjoyed a spot of lunch on a park bench, with Jong-un looking to a ‘new history’ in relations with his counterpart.
Incredibly, the meeting could well be recognised by the Nobel Peace Prize judges, with a number of bookmakers installing the pair as short as 4/6 to be names as laureates. That would put them in a unique category of people and organisations that includes Martin Luther King, UNICEF, Henry Kissinger and Mother Theresa.
A History of Violence
The 2017 Nobel laureate was awarded to the ‘International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons’, and so a logical follow on would be the change in Jong-un’s attitude towards causing havoc for his neighbour with his continued nuclear testing programmes.
Jong-un claimed that the meeting was the ‘starting point’ for peace between the two nations, who have a storied history of conflict and military action. They held hands and stood on both sides of the demarcation line, which acts as the border between the two countries.
They even planted a tree using soil and water from both sides of the divide, with the accompanying stone marker reading ‘planting peace and prosperity’.
The North Korean leader has indicated a willingness to suspend his nuclear testing experiments, and while there has been cynicism in some quarters it is likely that Jong-un’s sea-change in psychology will be ‘rewarded’ with Nobel recognition.
Donald Ready to Trump Korean Duo?
Remarkably, Donald Trump was priced as short as 2/1 to be awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize just a week ago.
The US president, who at one point threatened to unleash fire and brimstone on North Korea and who sanctioned military action on Syria in the past month.
But the bouffant-wearing powerhouse has also softened his stance of late, and has even suggested the Peace House, a symbolic building on the North and South Korean border, as a location for further talks between himself and his Asian counterparts.
Trump has even been endorsed for the gong by Jae-in, who said that ‘President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize. What we need is only peace,’ and that he ‘deserves big credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks. It could be a resulting work of the US-led sanctions and pressure.’
Four former US presidents have all claimed the prize, including Barack Obama – who was made a laureate despite tripling the number of troops in Afghanistan prior to his nomination, as well as Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter.