Why did Kim fail to win the Nobel Prize?

It is almost impossible to determine exactly why President Kim Dae-Jung failed to win the Nobel Prize this year although he was often mentioned as a likely recipient. This is because the selection process for the Nobel Peace Prize took place in complete secrecy.

This year, 115 individuals and 35 organizations were put on the list of candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize, but the details of the names on the list will be made public only after 50 years. It appears that choosing the winner is something tantamount to a carefully guarded ritual. Therefore, there is little reason for President Kim to be disappointed at his failure to receive the coveted prize, and there is still hope that he will win the prize next year. As the recommendations for peace prize winners are made by February each year, the winner is often decided on account of their individual feats or the accomplishments of their organizations before this deadline.

Former German Chancellor Billy Brandt, who brokered the East-West summit conference in 1971, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1972, and Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and Palestinian Liberation Organization Chairman Arafat, who staged successful Mideast peace talks in 1993, jointly won the prize in 1994. This means that the historic inter-Korean summit could have not been taken into consideration in the process of screening this year's Nobel Prize winner. The installation of a time delay in screening the prize recipient may imply that current conditions could change rapidly in the future.

A question may be raised over the Nobel Peace Prize being shared by South Korean President Kim and North Korean Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-Il. Foreign mass media outlets once expressed concerns that if Kim Jong-Il fails to jointly receive the prize, friction could arise between the two leaders.

In this respect, political considerations might also affect the screening, given that if the awarding of the peace prize proves to be detrimental to peace, the prize itself runs counter to its original goal. The screening members may have taken this into consideration. If the Norwegian Nobel Committee views the matter in this light, there is a possibility that President Kim and Kim Jong-Il will be nominated as joint prize winners next year. Since the 1970s, there have been 11 joint prize winnings.

Nonetheless, in the eyes of the United States and Europe, the Mideast and Balkan situations are considered more serious than the developments on the Korean peninsula. Accordingly, the President may well not hinge too much expectation on the Nobel Peace Prize.

There are rumors that domestic anti-Kim sentiments might have adversely affected the screening, but this has yet to be proven.