President Kim Dae-Jung of South Korea pressed North Korea to continue the push for peace on the Korean peninsula yesterday as he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his reconciliation efforts with the North.
In an award ceremony speech at Oslo City Hall, Mr Kim (75) vowed to dedicate "the rest of my life to human rights and peace in my country and the world, and to the reconciliation and co-operation of my people."
He pressed Pyongyang to improve ties with Seoul's allies in order to bolster the peace process undertaken earlier this year.
"Convinced that improved inter-Korean relations is not enough for peace to fully settle on the Korean peninsula, I have strongly encouraged [the North Korean] Chairman Kim [JongIl] to build better ties with the United States and Japan as well as other western countries," Mr Kim told 1,200 guests after accepting the prize.
The former dissident was awarded the Peace Prize for his lifelong struggle for human rights and democracy, and for his "Sunshine Policy" of offering assistance to North Korea with the goal of achieving peace.
At a summit in June in Pyongyang, the South Korean President and the North Korean leader agreed to move toward reconciliation and end enmity stemming from the war.
In his speech, the South Korean leader, who walks with a limp as a result of torture he suffered at the hands of South Korea's military regimes, revealed some of his personal thoughts on the summer summit.
"I went with a heavy heart not knowing what to expect, but convinced that I must go for the reconciliation of my people and peace on the Korean peninsula," he said. "I had expected the talks with the North Korean leader to be extremely tough, and they were."
Mr Kim highlighted the importance of his Catholic faith in his life and political struggle. "I have lived, and continue to live, in the belief that God is always with me", Mr Kim (75) said. The former dissident and his second wife, Ms Lee Hee-Ho, belong to South Korea's Christian minority.
In presenting the award, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Mr Gunnar Berge, called the 2000 Peace Prize "a reward for the steps that have been taken so far."
Speaking on the eve of the award ceremony, Mr Kim said he believed the reunification process, which he called the "ultimate dream", would take "10 years, 20 years, perhaps even longer."
The prizes for Literature, Medicine, Chemistry, Physics and Economics were presented at a separate ceremony in Stockholm, where the laureates received their awards from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
In awarding the Literature Prize to the Chinese dissident Gao Xingjian, Mr Goeran Malmqvist of the Swedish Academy said the author's novel Soul Mountain "stands out as one of the foremost works in 20th century Chinese literature."