By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – South Korean President Moon Jae-in met with Pope Francis on Friday, giving him a cross made of barbed wire from the peninsula’s demilitarized zone and again asking that he visits North Korea.
Moon, who is Catholic, was in Rome for the G20 leaders’ summit and had a private conversation with the pope for about 25 minutes, the Vatican said.
Moon’s office said the president, who leaves office in May, had told Francisco that a papal visit to Pyongyang would help revive the peace process in the Korean Peninsula.
“If you send me an invitation, I will gladly come to help you, in the name of peace. Aren’t you brothers who speak the same language? I’m willing to go,” the pope said, according to a cabinet report.
The Vatican said in a statement that the two sides debated “the promotion of dialogue and reconciliation between the Koreas” and the hope that “a joint effort and goodwill can favor the peace and development of the Korean Peninsula, supported by solidarity and the fraternity”.
When he met the pope in 2018, Moon conveyed a verbal invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to Francisco for the pontiff to visit North Korea.
At the time, Vatican officials said the pope, who had already made many calls for rapprochement between the two Koreas, would consider such a trip under certain conditions if it could help the cause of peace.
North Korea’s Constitution guarantees religious freedom as long as it does not violate the state.
(Additional reporting by Cynthia Kim in Seoul)
See too
+ How podcasts can help Brazilians’ financial education
+ Mystery: woman discovers that she is not the biological mother of her own children
+ Lemon-squeezing trick becomes a craze on social media
+ Chef playmate creates aphrodisiac recipe for Orgasm Day
+ Mercedes-Benz Sprinter wins motorhome version
+ Anorexia, an eating disorder that can lead to death
+ US agency warns: never wash raw chicken meat
+ Yasmin Brunet breaks the silence
+ Shark is captured in MA with the remains of youngsters missing in the stomach
+ See how much it costs to eat at the MasterChef judges’ restaurants
+ Auction of cars and motorcycles from Kombi to Nissan Frontier 0km
#South #Korean #President #meets #Pope #asks #visit #North #Korea #ISTOÉ #MONEY