{"id":623584,"date":"2022-08-26T18:20:27","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T22:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/?p=623584"},"modified":"2022-08-26T18:20:27","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T22:20:27","slug":"pope-francis-asked-to-be-invited-to-visit-north-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/623584\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis asked to be invited to visit North Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"SEOUL (AFP) – Pope Francis has asked Pyongyang to invite him to North Korea, saying in a televised interview on Friday that he would not turn down a chance to visit and work for peace.<\/p>\n

A potential papal visit to the isolated, nuclear-armed country was previously floated in 2018 when Seoul\u2019s former president Moon Jae-in embarked on a round of diplomacy with Pyongyang\u2019s leader Kim Jong Un.<\/p>\n

Moon, who is Catholic, said during a summit that Kim told him the pontiff would be \u201centhusiastically\u201d welcomed.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis replied at the time that he would be willing to go if he received an official invitation.<\/p>\n

But Pyongyang has largely cut off contact with Seoul following the collapse of a second summit between Kim and then-US president Donald Trump in 2019, which has left talks at a standstill.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they invite me \u2014 that is to say, please invite me \u2014 I won\u2019t say no,\u201d Pope Francis told South Korea\u2019s state broadcaster KBS in an interview that aired Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is simply fraternity,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Ties between North and South Korea have been at a frosty low since Seoul inaugurated a hawkish new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, in May.<\/p>\n

Yoon offered aid to the North in return for denuclearization, but Kim\u2019s regime ridiculed the plan.<\/p>\n

The North blamed South Korea for its May outbreak of COVID-19 and earlier this month threatened to \u201cwipe out\u201d Seoul\u2019s authorities in retaliation.<\/p>\n

North Korea has conducted a record number of weapons tests this year, including firing an intercontinental ballistic missile at full range for the first time since 2017.<\/p>\n

The pope has repeatedly urged Koreans on the peninsula to \u201cwork for peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou, the Korean people, have suffered from the war,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Religious freedom is enshrined in the North\u2019s constitution, but all religious activity is banned outside of state-sanctioned institutions.<\/p>\n

In the early 20th century, before the division of the peninsula, Pyongyang was a regional missionary hub with scores of churches and a thriving Christian community that earned it the title \u201cJerusalem of the East.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Kim Il Sung, the North\u2019s late founding leader and the current ruler\u2019s grandfather, viewed Christianity as a threat and eradicated it through executions and labor camps.<\/p>\n

The North\u2019s regime has since allowed Catholic organizations to run aid projects, but direct relations with the Vatican are non-existent.<\/p>\n

When Pope Francis visited South Korea in 2014, he held a special mass dedicated to the reunification of the two Koreas.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SEOUL (AFP) – Pope Francis has asked Pyongyang to invite him to North Korea, saying in a televised interview on Friday that he would not turn down a chance to visit and work for peace. A potential papal visit to the isolated, nuclear-armed country was previously floated in 2018 when Seoul\u2019s former president Moon Jae-in embarked on a round of diplomacy with Pyongyang\u2019s leader Kim Jong Un. Moon, who is Catholic, said during a summit that Kim told him the pontiff would be \u201centhusiastically\u201d welcomed. Pope Francis replied at the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":623585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47748],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-623584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}