SEOUL (UCAN) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has invited Pope John Paul II to North Korea country, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung revealed June 16, one day after returning from his three-day visit to Pyongyang.
President Kim conveyed the pope's intention to visit the communist North and Kim Jong-il, chairman of the (North Korean) National Defense Commission, welcomed it, presidential spokesperson Park Joon-young said.
"I told Chairman Kim that Pope John Paul II would like to visit North Korea if (that is) possible," and the chairman expressed his willingness to invite the pope after asking the pope's age, Park quoted President Kim as saying.
President Kim visited North Korea June 13-15. It was the first-ever visit by a South Korean president to the North. The peninsula was effectively divided in 1945. Both leaders signed a historic agreement that the two Koreas would strive for reunification and cooperate with each other.
Earlier in March, President Kim had asked the pontiff to visit North Korea for the sake of peace for the Korean peninsula and for the world during an audience with the pope.
In response to his request, the pope said he hopes to do so but did not have any plans at the moment, and it would be a "miracle" if he could travel to North Korea.
In a June 11 special message, the pope expressed his hope that a historic meeting between the leaders of South and North Korea would bring reconciliation between the two Koreas.
"I am united with all people of goodwill in offering my congratulations on this initiative, and I do so in the hope that the dialogue and the subsequent exchange will make a significant contribution to fostering reconciliation between both people," the pope said.
He also expressed his hope that families divided for more than half a century could be reunited that both stability and prosperity could be restored to the whole Korean peninsula.
Meanwhile, South Korean Foreign Minister Lee Joung-bin delivered the North Korean invitation to Archbishop Giovanni Battista Morandini, apostolic nuncio to South Korea, on the afternoon of June 16. The Apostolic Nunciature in Seoul confirmed that the nuncio has been informed about the invitation. According to local media, Archbishop Morandini was quoted as saying that the pope would accept the invitation.
The media speculated that the visit would likely be made late this year, but could be realized earlier if the situation permits. Chairman Kim, first son of the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, came into power after the death of his father in July 1994. North Korea is said to have some 5,000 Catholics with only one Catholic church, in Pyongyang.
The Korean Roman Catholics Association represents North Korean Catholics but there has been no resident priest since the Korean War, which ended in 1953.
Some of the southern parts of North Korea are ecclesiastically under the jurisdiction of Seoul archdiocese and Chunchon diocese, both in South Korea. Archbishop Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk of Seoul is apostolic administrator of Pyongyang.
Archbishop Cheong has several times expressed his strong hope to welcome the pope in Pyongyang.
UCAN 16. juni 2000