VATICAN (CNS): In Rome for the G-20 summit, South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, visited Pope Francis on October 29 and also mooted the possibility of a papal visit to North Korea.
The president’s office tweeted: “At the meeting held in the Apostolic Palace, President Moon said, ‘If Your Holiness has the opportunity and pays a visit to North Korea, it will build momentum for peace on the Korean Peninsula.’”
It said, “Pope Francis said if he received an invitation, he would gladly visit the North for the sake of helping Koreans and the cause of peace. He went on to say that South and North Koreans are brothers who speak the same language and that he would willingly go.”
Moon gave the pope a cross made out of barbed wire that came from the demilitarised zone on the border with North Korea. He accompanied the gift with a letter saying he hoped that cross and others made from the barbed wire would put down roots and peace would flower.
Moon brought more than 100 of the crosses to Rome. They were featured in a prayer exhibit at Rome’s Church of St. Ignatius.
Moon said that like the biblical swords being turned into plowshares, the barbed-wire crosses are a sign of “the desire of many separated families in both Koreas to return to hometowns and meet relatives. They also hold the earnest wish and prayer of the people of the Republic of Korea to end the war for good and for the two Koreas to live in peace from this time forth.”
In early July, the head of South Korea’s intelligence services told people at a Mass in Mokpo, South Korea, that he would meet with the president of the South Korean Bishops’ Conference and the papal nuncio to discuss the possibility of Pope Francis visiting North Korea.
When Moon previously met with Pope Francis at the Vatican in October 2018, he passed on what he said was an invitation to visit from North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, according to a report from the South Korean news agency Yonhap, quoting Moon’s press secretary.
