Lawmaker suggests pontiff wants to visit the isolated nation soon – the first time a pope will travel to North Korea.
Pope Francis wants to visit North Korea in the coming months, a South Korean official said on Monday, a further sign the isolated nation is opening up to the world.
The move comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited the pontiff to his country last week.
“I heard that there is talk that Pope Francis wants to visit North Korea next spring,” Lee Hae-chan, the chairman of South Korea’s Democratic Party, was quoted as saying on Monday by Yonhap news agency .
Lee didn’t clarify the source of his information. If the visit happens, it would be the first time a pope visited North Korea.
North Korea and the Vatican have no formal diplomatic relations. North Korea’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion as long as it does not undermine the state, but beyond a handful of state-controlled places of worship, no open religious activity is allowed. Tension-reduction steps
The rival Koreas held high-level talks on Monday to discuss further engagement amid a global diplomatic push to resolve the nuclear standoff with North Korea.
South Korea said discussions were aimed at finding ways to carry out peace agreements announced after the summit last month between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
The meeting between senior officials comes at a sensitive time as the United States has expressed unease over the fast pace in inter-Korean engagement, which it says should move in tandem with US-led efforts to denuclearise the North.
Before leaving for the meeting at the border village of Panmunjom, South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said the discussions will include setting up a joint survey of a North Korean railroad section the Koreas plan to connect with the South.
