This year's Nobel Peace Prize is expected to be selected from 287 nominees, including 208 individuals and 79 organizations. Citizens of the Republic of Korea who stopped the Dec. 3 martial law emergency are believed to be on the shortlist.
Kristian Berg Harpviken, secretary-general of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which oversees the Nobel Peace Prize, said on the 30th (local time) that 287 candidates were nominated for this year's prize, of whom 208 are individuals and the remaining 79 are organizations.
In an interview with Reuters, Harpviken said, "This year, many new candidates were nominated compared to last year." However, he did not mention the list of nominees because the Nobel Committee keeps the nominations confidential for 50 years.
Among the nominees for this year's Nobel Peace Prize disclosed by Harpviken are believed to be citizens of the Republic of Korea who overcame the Dec. 3 martial law emergency.
Earlier, Kim Ui-young, a professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Seoul National University, said in February that some political scientists, including former and current presidents of the International Political Science Association (IPSA), had nominated the Republic of Korea's "Citizen Collective" for the Nobel Peace Prize in January to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Reuters also predicted that President Trump's name would be among the nominees. It said leaders of Israel, Cambodia and Pakistan have repeatedly said they nominated U.S. President Donald Trump for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
The Nobel Peace Prize accepts nominations from a wide range of figures beyond members of the Nobel Committee, including government and parliamentary officials from various countries, sitting heads of state, scholars and former Nobel Peace Prize laureates. The nomination deadline for this year's laureates was on Jan. 31.
Meanwhile, Harpviken emphasized that the importance of the prize remains high even as conflicts increase worldwide and international cooperation comes under pressure.