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South Korean President Moon Jae-in reckons Donald Trump should get a peace prize for trying to end the standoff with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program.
But could he actually win the prize?
We spoke to associate professor in US politics Brendon O'Connor about the likelihood of the US President receiving the honour.
What's the peace prize again?
The prize is awarded by the five member Norwegian Nobel Committee, which is appointed by the country's parliament and reflects its makeup.
It was founded by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish businessman who invented dynamite and traded arms.
But since its inception there has been a great deal of controversy and contradictions surrounding the prize.
What do you have to do to be considered?
It can recognise both accomplishments and intentions.
Previous award winners include the United Nations, the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"There's a rare exception where giving it to a leader is a good idea," Mr O'Connor said.
But the award has been criticised for recognising intentions and last year, some asked whether a prize should be awarded for 'symbolism'.
That was because the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) received the award despite no international measures against nuclear weapons with all countries having been reached.
Ms Reiss-Andersen said in response to the questions: "What will not have an impact is being passive."
Barack Obama has won the prize
There was also criticism when former president Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.
He was recognised for giving the world hope for a better future with his work for peace and calls to reduce the global stockpile of nuclear weapons.
The committee attached "special importance to his vision and work for a world without nuclear weapons" and said he had created "a new climate in international politics".
Opponents criticised the decision since the President was less than nine months into his presidency and had not achieved any breakthrough on the Middle East or Iran's nuclear program.
Years later, the committee's ex-secretary Geir Lundestad even revealed that awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Mr Obama failed to achieve what they hoped it would, the BBC reported.
"Even many of Obama's supporters believed that the prize was a mistake," he said at the time.
"In that sense the committee didn't achieve what it had hoped for."
Given this revelation, the Committee might be more reluctant to award another sitting President.
So what are Trump's chances?
Well, it's ultimately up to the Committee. But Mr O'Connor says he wouldn't be at the top of the list, or even near it.
"I don't think they'd even be considering him," he said.
"… Switzerland had a campaign to abolish nuclear weapons that got the prize last year and there was concern that Donald Trump had talked about if you've got nuclear weapons, you might consider using them," he said.
We're not sure if Mr Trump has been nominated this year, since the Committee does not itself announce the names of nominees, neither to the media nor to the candidates themselves.
The Trump administration has led a global effort to impose stricter sanctions on North Korea and Mr Trump has threatened Kim Jong-un in the past year over North Korea's development of nuclear missiles capable of reaching the United States.
And in January, Mr Moon said Mr Trump "deserves big credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks. It could be a resulting work of the US-led sanctions and pressure".
Mr Trump is even preparing for his own summit with Mr Kim, which he said would take place in the next three to four weeks.
But while North and South Korea have pledged at a summit to end hostilities between their countries and work toward the "complete denuclearisation" of the Korean peninsula, Mr O'Connor says we're a long way from the two being unified.
"So I think we're jumping the gun quite a bit here. Donald Trump might meet Kim Jong-un and that might be a meeting that doesn't go well," he said.
"How do we know that this doesn't make things worse? There's a possibility that things go badly here.
"So, when you talk about a Nobel Peace Prize it's ridiculous because we don't really know how this is going to play out. In terms of negotiations, we're just at step one."
And the Committee would also have to take into account his stance on other issues.
"It would be an incredible thing for the Committee — given all that Trump has said about world politics, not being particularly interested in the idea of global peace or the United Nations or institutions or international law — it would be an extraordinary thing for them to say 'well OK you said all these other things, and moving in all these other negative directions on all these other issues, but on this one issue something good has happened so we'll overlook the rest of it'."
That rules out Kim Jong-un too
Yep. Mr Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Friday pledged at a summit to end hostilities between their countries and work toward the "complete denuclearisation" of the Korean peninsula.
But he would still have less of a chance than Donald Trump, Mr O'Connor says, especially given the North Korean leader's "history of human rights abuses".
But Mr Moon could be considered if he's seen as "playing a role in getting people to discuss things, getting them to the table, reducing tensions".
"You've got to take a fairly general view of the behaviour of an individual for the Nobel Peace Prize," Mr O'Connor said.
"For example, the leader of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi got it in 1991 and she has gone on to receive a lot of criticism for not helping the Rohingya people … and people have said you can't be a Nobel Peace winner and let there be genocide to some extent going on in your own county."
So why would South Korea suggest he be a candidate?
Mr O'Connor says it's probably more a strategic move, rather than a genuine suggestion.
"Maybe the South Korean President is kind of more crafty than we might think and wants to draw Trump into the belief that diplomacy is the best approach here and talking tough and threatening to bomb the North Koreans isn't the approach South Korea wants," he said.
"I mean millions of people would die in South Korea immediately if there was a war between the United States and North Korea as North Korea could easily retaliate across the border, so maybe this isn't the most genuine thing that we've ever heard."
Instead, he says Mr Moon may want to "stroke the ego" of Mr Trump for the benefit of getting him to meet with Mr Kim.
"The South Koreans may be trying to prompt Trump into believing some of the hype about himself and believing he is a great negotiator so therefore he should negotiate rather than threaten or take military action," he said.
"…He [may want] him to have faith and diplomacy in this process rather than the kind of talk we had last year where Donald Trump said he was going to rain fire and fury down on North Korea if they didn't bend to his will.
"So there is more to this story than the headline might suggest."
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Topics: donald-trump, government-and-politics, human-interest, awards-and-prizes, federal-government, united-states
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