United States President Donald Trump on Friday claimed that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize for starting dialogue with North Korea.
Speaking at a White House news conference, Trump claimed Abe had given him “the most beautiful copy of a letter that he sent to the people who give out a thing called the Nobel Prize”.
“He [Abe] said, ‘I have nominated you, respectfully, on behalf of Japan. I am asking them to give you the Nobel Peace Prize,’” said Trump, responding to a query on his summit in Vietnam with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“Many other people feel that way, too,” Trump said. “I’ll probably never get it. But that’s OK.”
Trump and Kim will hold a second summit in Hanoi on February 27 and 28. The two leaders had met for the first time in June last year in Singapore for a historic summit, following which Kim committed to the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsula.
Trump on Friday also complained that he would never get the Nobel Peace Prize despite his work in North Korea and warring Syria, Reuters reported.
Trump claimed that former President Barack Obama, who was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, had no idea why he was honoured. “He was there for about 15 seconds and he got the Nobel Prize. He said, ‘Oh, what did I get it for?’” Trump said. “With me, I probably will never get it.”
Obama was given the award for laying out the US commitment to “seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons”.
Trump claimed that he had saved three million people living in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib region from being killed after threatening Russia, Iran and the Syrian government against a planned offensive. “Nobody talks about that,” he said.
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