"I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart ... Koreans are especially pleased at the news," Kim, who won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize, was quoted as saying in a message sent to Carter late Friday by the presidential Blue House.

He said Carter deserved the honor for his efforts to ease tension in the Middle East, in helping the underprivileged and promoting peace and human rights around the world.

He noted that Carter visited Pyongyang in 1994 for talks with then North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung.

The visit defused a crisis over the communist country's suspected nuclear weapons programme which brought the Korean peninsula to the brink of war.

"We expect your continued support for peace on the Korean peninsula," Kim said.

SPACE.WIRE