Source: The Guardian
Pope Francis will seriously consider making an unprecedented visit to North Korea, but some conditions would have to be met, a senior Vatican official has said.
An invitation from the closed state’s leader, Kim Jong-un, was relayed to the pope by South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, who is Catholic, during a private audience at the Vatican on Thursday. The South Korean presidential office said Moon had “conveyed [Kim’s] desire for a papal visit to North Korea”, with a formal invitation directly from Pyongyang to follow.
Speaking on Thursday evening, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, told reporters: “The pope expressed his willingness. We have to wait for it [the invitation] to be formalised.”
Categories: Asia, North Korea, Pope Francis, The Muslim Times, Vatican