SOUTH KOREA: Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammad Yunus awarded in Seoul ceremony

Record ID: 349397

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammad Yunus awarded in Seoul ceremony
  • Date: 20th October 2006
  • Summary: (EU) SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (OCTOBER 19, 2006) (REUTERS) 2006 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER MUHAMMAD YUNUS ARRIVING AT 2006 SEOUL PEACE PRIZE CEREMONY
  • Embargoed: 4th November 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA25D4RPJ370XRM933EH0DVQF4
  • Story Text: Bangladesh's Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus condemned North Korea on Thursday (October 19, 2006) for testing a nuclear device in Seoul amid diplomatic efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis.
    Yunus arrived in Seoul on Wednesday (October 18) to receive the 2006 Seoul Peace Prize, which was established in 1990 to commemorate the success of the 24th Seoul Olympic Games.
    "Well we all condemn it. There shouldn't be any nuclear test, there shouldn't be a nuclear weapon anywhere in the world. Wherever the stockpile is, the stockpile has to be destroyed," he told Reuters.
    Meanwhile, foreign ministers from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan gathered in Seoul on Thursday afternoon to discuss ways to implement UN sanctions passed last week.
    The Nobel Prize winner also said everyone can overcome poverty if the necessary steps were taken.
    "It''s like the same anywhere else, Bangladesh, North Korea, wherever poverty exists. It is unnecessary. We can overcome that poverty. All we need is to take prepared steps to help poor people get out of poverty."
    Yunus said he planned a nation-wide movement to find honest and capable candidates to run for parliament elections next year.
    Yunus, speaking to reporters late on Tuesday, said he could form a political party, if needed, as part of a campaign to cleanse the impoverished nation's politics, riven by infighting.
    Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded were awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for grassroots efforts to lift millions out of poverty that earned him the nickname "banker to the poor".
    His pioneering model went on to be copied in over 100 countries from the United States to Uganda.
    But Yunus turned down calls to lead an independent caretaker administration that will supervise the elections in January after Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia's government steps down later this month.
    The country's main political parties are finding it difficult to agree to the caretaker authority's composition. The ruling party and opposition groups have been locked in talks for weeks trying for a consensus on electoral reform.
    Bangladesh has seen a series of often violent opposition-led strikes and shutdowns in recent months, and there are fears the violence could escalate if the two sides do not reach a consensus on the interim government.
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