Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer says President Donald Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
Joining six other Republican governors, Colyer signed a letter this week that said the president should get the honor for “his transformative efforts to bring peace to the Korean peninsula.”
The letter, dated Monday, was sent to the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The same panel gave Barack Obama the peace prize just nine months into his presidency in 2009 for what it saw as his contribution to international diplomacy.
In supporting Trump’s nomination, the governors cited Trump’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un set for next month in Singapore. They also credited him for pressing the rogue country to end its nuclear weapons development.
“Though he has only been in office one year, President Trump has achieved an unprecedented victory for global peace and security,” their letter states. “The President’s firm stance against nuclearization, coupled with his willingness to engage one-on-one with Pyongyang, has succeeded in opening new avenues of cooperation, friendship and unity between the two Koreas.”
Critics have worried that agreeing to a meeting with Kim gives the dictator international prestige without guarantees that North Korea will abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions. But others have seen it as an opening to ease tensions and avoid a catastrophic military conflict.
The governors said in their letter that the scheduled meeting with Kim and Trump came from the U.S. president working with China to impose increased pressure on Pyongyang in concert with diplomatic outreach to the isolated regime.
They also noted the work of one-time Kansas congressman Mike Pompeo while he was director of the CIA. He met with Kim to arrange the summit shortly before becoming U.S. secretary of state last month.
A Colyer spokeswoman said the letter explained Colyer’s position and that his office had nothing to add.
On Wednesday Pyongyang time, the North Korean state news agency said it was cutting off peace talks with the Seoul government over joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises on the peninsula.
Scott Canon is digital editor of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. You can reach him on Twitter @ScottCanon. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to the original post.
