University of Georgia professor Han Park has won the Gandhi, King, Ikeda Community Builder's Prize, awarded annually by Atlanta's Morehouse College.

"We are thrilled to honor Dr. Han Park with the prestigious award," said Lawrence E. Carter, dean of Morehouse's Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel. "Park has distinguished himself not only as an international peacemaker, but also as a humanitarian."

Park has worked for years to defuse tensions between North Korea and the United States, especially in recent years as the communist country has threatened to develop nuclear arms.

The UGA professor joins an august group to win the award, named for Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi and Daisaku Ikeda. Previous winners include South African cleric and anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu and American rabbi Michael Lerner, who has worked to promote peace between Israel and Palestine.

Eight of the 12 previous winners of the Gandhi, King, Ikeda prize also are recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize.

"The (prize) was designed to promote the importance of peace and positive social transformation by honoring those demonstrating extraordinary global leadership through nonviolence toward reconciling differences," according to a letter Carter sent to Park.

"Given the previous recipients, my first response was, 'They made a mistake,' " said Park, a professor of international affairs and director of UGA's Center for the Study of Global Issues. "I don't deserve it - I'm not anywhere remotely in their league."

Park will devote himself even more to nonviolent dispute resolution now, he said.

"It is an award that would make me commit myself to the cause of peace and the spirit of the prize, and work harder (toward peace) in the rest of my life," he said.

Park, born in China in the bloody years of the Chinese Revolution, has worked for years to reunite families separated in the partition of North and South Korea more than half a century ago.

Park also has acted as a behind-the-scenes negotiator between North Korea's government and diplomats in the United States and other countries. He helped arrange a controversial trip by former President Jimmy Carter to the North Korean capital of Pyongyang in 1994. Some historians believe Carter's meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung averted war.

Last year, Park's quiet diplomacy burst into international headlines when he set the stage for Bill Clinton to get two U.S. journalists out of North Korean custody.

Park will receive the award at 11 a.m. Thursday in a ceremony at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at the college.

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Friday, March 26, 2010