With the announcement of this year's Nobel Peace Prize approaching and the likelihood of U.S. President Donald Trump failing to win appearing high once again, a suggestion has emerged to suspend the peace prize for three years until he leaves office, in order to avoid provoking him.
According to The Washington Post, concerns are rising in Norway—where the Nobel Peace Prize winner is announced this evening—over the potential fallout from President Trump missing out on the award.
Previously, President Trump openly expressed his desire to win the peace prize, claiming he had ended multiple wars and even calling Norwegian Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg directly to demand the award.
However, he failed to win the peace prize at the time, and the situation remains similar this year.
Henrik Syse, a research professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo who served as deputy chair of the six-member Norwegian Nobel Committee until 2020, stated that Trump appears to have been excluded from consideration this year as well.
Nevertheless, Norwegian figures worry that Trump might take his failure to win the peace prize as a snub against him and express dissatisfaction again this year.
In fact, back in January during a conflict with Europe over the Greenland issue, President Trump sent a text message to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, stating, "Since your country has decided not to give the Nobel Peace Prize to someone like me who has ended more than eight wars, I no longer feel any obligation to think only of peace."
Amidst this, Kjetil Tronvoll, vice-rector of research at Kristiania University College in Oslo, told The Washington Post, "It might even be better to suspend the peace prize presentation for three years until he leaves office so as not to provoke him unnecessarily."
President Trump still maintains his stance that he deserves to receive the award.
Speaking at the White House yesterday, he claimed, "Probably no president has ever ended wars," adding, "I resolved eight wars, and those were major ones."
Currently, contenders mentioned for this year's Nobel Peace Prize include the charity Save the Children and Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms, a network of volunteer aid groups operating amid civil war and famine.
This year's Nobel Peace Prize will be announced at 6:00 PM today in Korean time, and the award ceremony will be held in Oslo, Norway, on December 10.
Reported by Lee Ho-geon | Video by Kim Bok-hyung | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
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