South Korean President Kim Dae-jung won the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday for his drive for democracy and closer ties with Stalinist North Korea across the world's last Cold War frontier.
Mr Gunnar Berge, chairman of the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee, praised Mr Kim's "work for democracy and human rights in South Korea and in east Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea in particular".
"Through his `sunshine policy', Kim Dae-jung has attempted to overcome more than 50 years of war and hostility between North and South Korea," he said. "There may now be hope that the Cold War will also come to an end in Korea."
A long-time dissident under army-backed authoritarian rule, Mr Kim finally won the presidency in 1997. Last June he capped his policy of engaging the communist North by attending a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang.
Half a century after the 195053 Korean War ended in a tense armed truce, the two states remain technically at war. More than a million soldiers still square off along the world's most heavily fortified border.
"I will continue to devote myself to human rights, democracy and peace on the Korean peninsula and for peace and democracy in Asia and the world," Mr Kim was quoted as saying.
Mr Kim (74) also said he wanted to share the honour "with those who have sacrificed for peace and democracy and my family and friends who have long suffered with me".
The 2000 award, to be handed over at a ceremony in Oslo on December 10th, comprises a gold medal, a diploma and a cheque for 9 million Swedish crowns ($908,300). The 1999 prize went to the international relief group, Medecins Sans Frontieres.
Mr Berge, who is also head of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, hailed Mr Kim's "moral strength" in campaigning for democracy "despite repeated threats on his life and long periods of exile".
He added that Mr Kim had shown considerable "commitment in favour of democracy in Burma and against repression in East Timor". The Peace Prize is named after Sweden's Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, and was first awarded in 1901.
The committee, seeking to deflect criticisms that the one-sided award could insult North Korea's Kim Jong-il, said it wanted to "express recognition of the contributions made by North Korea's and other countries' leaders to advance reconciliation and possible reunification".
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat shared the 1994 peace prize with the then Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, and foreign minister Shimon Peres for a Middle East peace process which is now in tatters.
North and South Korea have been close to a breakthrough in the past. They agreed a joint declaration in 1971 and signed non-aggression treaties in 1991, only to slip back into sullen confrontation.