ISTANBUL

South Koreans who blocked a martial law declaration in December 2024 have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, a move hailed by President Lee Jae Myung as ‘a model for human history.’

Prominent political scientists from around the world, including Kim Eui-young, a professor at Seoul National University, Pablo Onate of the University of Valencia, David Farrell of University College Dublin, and Azul Aguiar of the University of Guadalajara, jointly nominated South Korean citizens, according to Seoul Economic Daily on Wednesday.

The nominators described the citizens’ actions in blocking the Dec. 3, 2024 martial law decree as the “Revolution of Light.”

The name refers to people who took to the streets holding light sticks, and to what they called “the case of defending democracy through nonviolence and civic participation that has been recognized as an international model,” the outlet reported.

“It was possible because it is the Republic of Korea, a great nation of the Korean people that will serve as a model for human history,” Lee said Wednesday on the US social media platform X following news of the nomination.

Lee also said during an address marking the first anniversary of the martial law declaration that he was “convinced that the Korean people, who overcame an unprecedented democratic crisis in world history through peaceful means, fully deserve to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.”