Why is Kim Jong-un receiving a peace prize?
The United Nations accuses North Korea of vast human-rights abuses, but Indonesia doesn鈥檛 necessarily agree. The Southeast Asian nation is even planning to award Kim Jong-un a peace prize.
A daughter of Indonesia鈥檚 founding president has confirmed on Monday that the North Korean leader will be awarded by the聽 for statesmanship, .
As the founder of the center Rachmawati Sukarnoputri said Mr. Kim will receive the award for his 鈥減eace, justice, and humanity.鈥�
The Bali-based Sukarno Center announced Thursday that it has decided to award its annual prize for global statesmanship to Kim Jong-un, describing him as a 鈥渃hampion in the fight against neocolonialism and imperialism,鈥� the .
Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar and India鈥檚 Mahatma Gandhi are two of the previous recipients of the award. Kim will receive the award in September.
North Korea has long been subject to global criticism over its human-rights record.
calls the country one of the "most harshly repressive countries in the world,鈥� while has continuously raised concern about North Korea鈥檚 prison camps, and food shortages that have been affected 鈥渕illions of people鈥� in North Korea over the years. 聽
Last year, after gathering evidence for almost a year, the United Nations鈥� commission on human-rights in North Korea concluded that the country鈥檚 leadership is committing 聽crimes against humanity with strong resemblances to those committed by Nazi Germany,聽.
On Monday, Mrs. Sukarnoputri said criticisms of Kim Jong-un鈥檚 human-rights record are 鈥渨estern propaganda.鈥�
"The allegations about human-rights abuses are untrue," she told AFP. 鈥淭hose Western governments like to put ugly labels on North Korea."
Kim is not the first North Korean leader to receive the award. As AFP reports, in 2001 the award was posthumously given to his grandfather, the state's founding father Kim Il-sung.
As prestigious as they often are, human-rights awards can sometimes be controversial. Even the Nobel Peace Prize, the most well-known peace prize in the world, is not an exception.
In 2012, the for 鈥渙ver six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy, and human-rights in Europe." But聽 slammed the decision, saying that the EU is "clearly not one of the 'champions of peace' Alfred Nobel had in mind" when he created the prize in 1895.
笔谤别蝉颈诲别苍迟听 received the award in 2009 only months into his first term in office, which caused many to accuse the Nobel Peace Prize Committee of being .
And former US Secretary of State won the award in 1973 for involvement in the Vietnam Peace Accords. At the time, he was overseeing the .
