President Trump - a strong candidate for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize

This year's Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in Oslo on October 5. Although the list of nominees for the prestigious award is being kept secret, many believe that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are the leading candidates for their efforts to reconcile the two countries, according toAFP.

"South Korean President Moon Jae-in did a great job using the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang to promote peace," said Peter Wallensteen, a Swedish professor specializing in international relations.

However, other experts are skeptical about their chances of winning the prize. "The breakthrough in inter-Korean relations is the most impressive thing in the field this year. But I wonder if it is too early to award the prize based on that," said Dan Smith, head of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have both raised the possibility of Mr Trump receiving the award for his approach to the North Korea issue.

However, Smith said Mr Trump was "unfit" because he had made "very negative decisions on peace", most notably withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement and the Iran nuclear deal.

Wallensteen sees a prominent candidate for this year's Nobel Peace Prize as Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has pushed for a new reconciliation effort with Eritrea, raising hopes for lasting peace between the two neighbors after 20 years of war.

However, Prime Minister Ahmed's chances are slim, as he took office in April and peace efforts only began this summer. This is quite late for the Nobel Committee, which began accepting nominations at the beginning of the year.

As the #MeToo movement raises global awareness of sexual abuse and harassment, this year's Nobel Peace Prize could honor those involved in the fight against sexual violence, such as Congolese gynecologist Mukwege or Nadia Murad, a girl who was sexually enslaved by Islamic State (IS) militants.

A multiple nominee, Mukwege has spent two decades helping women recover from violence and the trauma of rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Murad became a women’s activist after her hellish ordeal at the hands of ISIS.

Henrik Urdal, head of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, said the prize could also go to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for its efforts to feed millions of people every year.

From the battlefields of Yemen to the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, “we see that hunger is becoming one of the greater humanitarian challenges of our time,” he said.

Other potential candidates include the UN refugee agency UNHCR, media advocacy groups such as Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists (RSF). Despite much speculation, the world will only know the final results of this year's Nobel Peace Prize at 09:00 GMT (16:00 Hanoi time) on October 5.