German Chancellor Angela Merkel was named the winner of this year’s Seoul Peace Prize for her constant, heartfelt apologies regarding German war crimes and atrocities. Since coming into office in 2005, she has officially apologized about the Holocaust. She made official apologies in a U.N. general meeting in 2007 and in a speech to the Israeli Parliament the next year. She even visited a former Nazi concentration camp to voice German repentance.

“Her apology over Germany’s past affairs has reminded the international community of the importance of human dignity and human rights, and this again set off an alarm about the harmful consequences of war and highlighted the importance of international peace,” said Lee Chul-seung, the chairman of the judging committee.

Despite Merkel’s perpetual, ardent apologies, Greece has yet to see payment of war reparations or repayment of a forced occupation loan. Calls for this repayment have been made continuously from the end of the war up to present times.

About the award. The award was launched in 1990 to celebrate South Korea’s successful hosting of the 24th Summer Olympic Games two years earlier. Previous awardees were United Nations Chief Kofi Annan, the international poverty eradication organization Oxfam, Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the current U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.