18 House Republicans nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize

A group of 18 House Republicans has formally nominated President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In a letter sent Wednesday to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the lawmakers tapped Trump for the highly coveted prize for his efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and end the 68-year-old war between North and South Korea.

“Since taking office, President Trump has worked tirelessly to apply maximum pressure on North Korea to end its illicit weapons program and bring peace to the region,” the letter, led by Rep. Luke Messer (R-Ind.), reads. 

{mosads}

“His Administration successfully united the international community, including China, to impose one of the most successful international sanctions regimes in history.”

Messer first announced last week that he planned to nominate Trump for the prize, after a landmark meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. 

In that meeting, the leaders of the rival Koreas agreed to work toward eliminating nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula, and said they would enter into talks with the U.S. to formally end the Korean War.

Active fighting in the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953. But a formal peace treaty was never signed, leaving the two countries in a perpetual state of war for decades. 

Trump is set to meet with Kim at the end of May or sometime in June, marking the first such encounter between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader in history. 

North Korea has agreed to cease its tests of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles ahead of the meeting, and recently announced that it would shutter a nuclear site in the northern part of the country as a show of good faith.