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Suzanne Scholte
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Suzanne Scholte, the president of the conservative Defense Forum Foundation of the U.S., has been chosen as the ninth winner of Seoul Peace Prize.
In a press conference held at the Seoul Press Center on Wednesday, Lee Chul-seung, chairman of the Seoul Peace Prize Cultural Foundation, said, "We selected Scholte as the winner this year for her contribution to improving human rights of North Korean residents and North Korean refugees, and bettering the status of refugees in Western Sahara."
"When the Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Dae-jung governments, and countries (which took the closest interest in Korea) turned their face away from North Korean refugees and the human rights situation in North Korea for political reasons, Scholte contributed to letting the international community know about the conditions of North Korean refugees and the North Korean human rights situation and drew attention to such issues."
The Seoul Peace Prize, which was founded in 1990 in commemoration of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, is awarded every two years; the prize is worth US$200,000. Among the winners, Medecins Sans Frontieres (doctors without borders), former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, and Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Greeman Bank in Bangladesh, have also won the Nobel Peace Prize.
This year's award ceremony will be held in Seoul on Oct. 7.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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