Donald Trump (left) and Kim Jong Un. Images lifted from Al Jazeera (credit: Reuters)
If they manage to achieve peace in Korea, they’ll be genuine heroes, whatever else they are.
April 27, 2018 (Bloomberg) -- Coral, one of the top British bookmakers, has Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un as favorites -- at 2/1 odds -- to win the Nobel Peace Prize this year. They’re ahead of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Saudi activist Raif Badawi, Pope Francis and other potential winners. If their talks go as well as Friday’s summit between Kim and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in, and peace is restored to the Korean peninsula, they’ll both deserve it.
There’s a lesson in this, and it’s about more than “normalization” -- a phrase we’ve been endlessly cautioned to avoid with both Kim and Trump. The nastiest, most distasteful people, even ruthless dictators and mass murderers, can and should be celebrated for specific actions that make the world a safer place. In some cases, these actions will -- and should -- form their principal legacy.
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