Kim Dae-Jung wanted to share Nobel with N Korean President

LONDON, OCT 25: South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said on Tuesday he would rather have shared his Nobel Peace Prize with North Korean le...

LONDON, OCT 25: South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said on Tuesday he would rather have shared his Nobel Peace Prize with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

He told the BBC in an interview that his drive for closer ties with Stalinist North Korea, culminating in June’s historic summit in Pyongyang between the two nations, was a joint effort.

"I did think that it would have been better had the chairman shared this prize with me, in particular since the main reason for my being given the award this year is the historic South-North Korean summit," Kim said.

Story continues below this ad

"That summit was not just my own work, but the joint work with Chairman Kim," he added. Kim, 74, aims to bind the 70 million people of the two Koreas through business and social exchange.

The South Korean President’s drive for democracy in Asia has laid the groundwork for bringing North Korea in from the cold — though the two Korean states still remain technically at war, with more than a million soldiers stationed on the world’s most heavily fortified border.

U S Secretary of State Madeleine Albright this week spent two days in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. She is expected to recommend for or against a trip there by President Bill Clinton upon her return to Washington.

Widely hailed by the international community, Kim’s Nobel Prize is to be presented at a December 10 ceremony in Oslo.