German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been selected as the winner of this year's Seoul Peace Prize.
 
The judging committee for the prize held a meeting at the Seoul Press Center on Wednesday and made the announcement. 
 
The committee said the chancellor has received the honor for Germany's apology for its past wrongdoings, which it says has served to raise awareness around the world regarding human dignity, human rights, the brutality of war and the importance of world peace.
 
Since becoming chancellor in 2005, Merkel apologized for her country's past wrongs at the UN General Assembly in 2007. She again apologized for the Holocaust, speaking in the Israeli Knesset parliament the following year.
 
Past recipients of the Seoul Peace Prize include inaugural honoree Juan Antonio Samaranch, former president of the International Olympic Committee, as well as former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, incumbent chief Ban Ki-moon and the humanitarian group Doctors without Borders.
 
Merkel will receive 200-thousand dollars in prize money with the award ceremony set to be held in Seoul during her visit to Korea.