Denny Roy, senior fellow of Asia Pacific security issues, East West Center

Trump does not deserve the Nobel Prize for his North Korea policy for several reasons.

First, immediately before Kim Jong Un went on his diplomatic offensive, Trump was threatening a military attack against North Korea if it acquired nuclear weapons, and with nuclear annihilation, if North Korea tried to nuke the United States. That may well have worked, but the aim of the Nobel Prize is not to honor successful belligerence … Trump’s policy since Kim Jong Un’s outreach has simply been to restate a longstanding U.S. offer that predated Trump, which is that the United States will compensate North Korea with upgraded economic and political relations if North Korea gives up its nuclear weapons. Trump did not break new ground, although he added his characteristically bizarre stylistic flourishes, such as publicly fawning over the despicable Kim Jong Un.”

Henrik Urdal, Research Director, Peace Research Institute Oslo

“I don’t think any of the actors involved in the work towards de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula deserves the prize this year, including Trump. We have seen promising signs that real negotiations could take place, but we are very far from any tangible and irreversible results towards nuclear disarmament. I think such a prize could happen down the road, but only after we have seen major progress.”