[Anchor]
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has openly demanded the Nobel Peace Prize, claimed that a war on the Korean Peninsula was averted thanks to him after his bid for the prize failed once again. This year's peace prize went to a former International Criminal Court judge, and coincidentally, the United States announced sanctions against the ICC immediately following the announcement.
Reporter Hong Yeongjae has the details.
[Reporter]
On the day of the Nobel Peace Prize announcement, President Trump was out campaigning to support the midterm elections.
He criticized the laureate and claimed that not giving the peace prize to him was a stain on the Nobel Committee's record.
[Donald Trump / U.S. President: Today they awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to someone I've never even heard of.]
Arguing that he had resolved eight wars and therefore deserved eight Nobel Prizes, he claimed that a war between South and North Korea was not happening because of him.
[Donald Trump / U.S. President: And by the way, I am constantly stopping a war between South Korea and North Korea, Japan and North Korea. China and Taiwan are also included.]
This year's Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Navi Pillay, who served as an inaugural judge at the International Criminal Court. Immediately afterward, the U.S. government announced high-intensity sanctions against the ICC.
Assets of the court within U.S. jurisdiction will be frozen, and U.S. companies and individuals must cut off transactions with the court within six months.
The U.S. has long refused to join the court, arguing that the ICC intends to prosecute U.S. troops for war crimes.
[Marco Rubio / U.S. Secretary of State: President Trump will never tolerate the International Criminal Court prosecuting Americans. We will ban transactions with this rogue court and cut off its resources, neutralizing its ability to operate against us.]
One hundred twenty-five countries, including South Korea, are members of the ICC, and the U.S. has pressured its allies to join the sanctions.
ICC President Tomoko Akane, who was placed on the U.S. individual sanctions list in August, criticized the U.S. institutional sanctions as an attack on the sovereign states that established the court.
Major member states, including the European Union, issued a joint statement pledging cooperation for the court's operation. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who had hesitated when sanctions were announced against the Japanese-born court president, immediately expressed "deep concern" this time.
(Video by Yoon Tae-ho, Graphics by Kim Han-gil)
※
Copying, redistribution, and unauthorized use in AI training are strictly prohibited.