Moon, a Catholic, was in Rome for the G20 summit of world leaders and held private talks with the pope for about 25 minutes, the Vatican said.

The cross given to the pope is one of 136 crosses created from melted-down barbed wire from the demilitarized zone (DMZ) representing the 68 years that the Korean peninsula has been divided.

An accompanying message written in Spanish expressed the South Korean president's hope that the crosses would be a symbol of peace.

"Just as the barbed wire's thorns and razor blades melt in the fire to become a beautiful cross, I am hopeful that we can forever melt that iron barrier that separates our hearts. I pray devoutly that this cross will take deep root and peace will flourish," the note said.

Moon's office said the president had told Francis that a papal visit to Pyongyang would help revive the peace process.

"If you send me an invitation, I will gladly go to help you, for the sake of peace. Aren't you brothers who speak the same language? I'm willing to go," it quoted the pope as saying.

The Vatican said that the two sides discussed "the promotion of dialogue and reconciliation between Koreans" and the hope that "joint effort and goodwill may favour peace and development in the Korean peninsula, supported by solidarity and by fraternity".

When he met the pope in 2018, Moon relayed a verbal invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to Francis for the pontiff to visit North Korea.

Vatican officials said at the time that the pope, who has made many appeals for rapprochement between the two Koreas, would consider such a trip under certain conditions if it could help the cause of peace.

"If the pontiff visits North Korea when an opportunity arises, it will be momentum for peace on the Korean Peninsula," Park Kyung-mee, the presidential spokesperson, said that Moon told the pope on Oct 29.

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 - including a Catholic church in the capital Pyongyang - no open religious activity is allowed and the authorities have repeatedly jailed foreign missionaries.

Sources

• US News
• America Magazine
• Reuters

His invitation is seen as a gesture designed to highlight peace on the Korean peninsula.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in will relay Kim's desire to host a papal visit when he visits the Vatican later this month.

His visit will be to reaffirm the Vatican's "blessing and support for peace and stability of the Korean peninsula," according to a spokesperson for Moon.

A Vatican statement says it is "anticipating the invitation." Questions as to how the pope may react to the invitation, however, met with a "let's wait for the invitation to arrive" response.

Kim's invitation to the pope is at odds with many of his actions since he took office seven years ago.

He has been censured for North Korea's repeated nuclear tests, alleged human rights abuses and reports that he was responsible for ordering his uncle's and brother's executions.

More recently, he has sought to present a more open-minded, "jovial" image of a leader who is apparently keen to promote dialogue and work towards peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Moon is seen as being at least partly responsible for Kim's initiative.

At their third inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang in September, Moon was accompanied by Hyginus Kim Hee-joong, the Archbishop of Gwangju and president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea.

A source close to the matter revealed to La Croix that "he personally transmitted a message from the Pope to Kim Jong-un at the meeting, and Kim's reaction was quite positive."

According to a South Korean presidential spokesperson, "Kim said he wanted the Pope to know his desire for peace."

Source

• La Croix
• New York Times
• La Croix
• Image: Sky News

He will also actively encourage peace initiatives in the region.

Monsignor Marco Sprizzi has been in charge of the Nunciature in Seoul since the retirement of Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Osvaldo Padilla last year.

He says Xuereb is "one of the closest allies of Pope Francis and reads the pope's thinking very well."

Xuereb is taking up his diplomatic post amid improving relations between the two Koreas.

The two countries have been technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty.

North Korea and the United States have been trading insults and threatening war for months over the North's nuclear and missile programmes.

After carrying out a number of tests last year, North Korea stopped its testing programme in November.

This has helped improve relations with the South.

Positive developments include the two Koreas marching together under a united flag in the opening ceremony of this year's Winter Olympics in South Korea.

United States President Donald Trump announced last week that he had accepted an invitation to meet with North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un.

The meeting's aim is to negotiate the North's nuclear weapons programme.

Trump will be the first sitting United States president to meet face-to-face with a North Korean leader.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in helped to facilitate the upcoming meeting.

He sent his National Security Advisor Chung Eui-yong to Pyongyang on Monday and then to Washington to convey the North Korean leader's invitation to Trump.

Moon is a practising Catholic who has pledged himself to peaceful dialogue on the Korean peninsula.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Vatican News
• Image: Eurasia Review

The two countries are trading insults, with North Korea threatening to send four missiles into the sea off Guam, as a response to President Donald Trump's escalating rhetoric.

"The only way forth is that of dialogue, because the way of conflict is always wrong, says Italian Archbishop Silvano Tomasi.

The current crisis shows how international relations can easily break down when there is a determination "to violate the minimum standard of common sense in dealing with other people," he adds.

"That's why you need to invest time, energy, money, resources in preventing the necessity of arriving at these boiling points of crisis."

U.S. and South Korean Catholic bishops have also called for the U.S. and North Korea to deescalate the current threat of war between them.

Bishop Oscar Cantu, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' international justice and peace committee, has written to Secretary Rex Tillerson urging Washington to avoid war and find a dialogue-based solution to the current tensions with Pyongyang.

Cantu says while the threat posed by North Korea should not be "underestimated or ignored," the "high certainty of catastrophic death and destruction from any military action must prompt the United States to work with others in the international community for a diplomatic and political solution based on dialogue."

He also says he and his colleagues support South Korean President Moon Jae-in's proposal to reopen negotiations with North Korea. Catholic bishops in South Korea aslo back this proposal.

Source

• Crux
• The Daily Caller
• Image: Daily Mail

"You are always welcome," South Korea's Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-jong was told when he asked if President Moon Jae-in could visit.

Last month Moon, who is a practising Catholic, sent Archbishop Kim to the Vatican on his behalf.

Kim is South Korea's first-ever envoy to the Vatican.

"I was sent by the president to ask the Holy Father for his support [and prayers] in the reconciliation process between North and South Korea, and I hope the Vatican can act as a mediator," he says.

The mediation "could be the same as the mediation made during the restoration of relations between Cuba and the Unites States," he suggests.

During his week-long trip, Kim met Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State and spoke briefly with Francis.

He says the scheduled talk he and Parolin had stretched from 15 to 45 minutes.

Kim says Parolin wanted an in-depth briefing about the situation in South Korea and the relations with the North.

"He agreed [with the South Korean stance] that dialogue is the only way out," Kim says.

In his five-minute conversation with Francis, Kim says "the Pope seemed very interested in the details [of the problems on the Korean peninsula].

He says he asked Francis to "offer blessings for the new president to complete his missions".

In response, Francis said is taking a special interest in Korea and the church.

"He also wished the new government under President Moon Jae-in to do well," Kim says.

Francis gave Kim a Rosary to take to Moon and reportedly said, "The more difficult the situation, the more it should be resolved through dialogue rather than arms."

Ultimately, Moon would like to reopen borders and possibly meet North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.

The international community is wary of Moon's stance, with the North's recent missile launches prompting increasingly tough sanctions from the UN Security Council.

Source

• Korean Herald
• Yonhap News Agency
• CatholicCulture
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: The Hankyoreh

These are among the expectations South Koreans have for their new president, Moon Jae-in.

In a congratulatory message from the Korean Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-joong said the country needed "a credible leader who keeps principles and steps toward true peace and justice beyond today's conflicts and confrontations."

"May the new president be a great leader who can make democracy take root in this country and bring peace and prosperity to the Korean people."

A Franciscan interviewed about Moon's win described him as "a good Catholic".

He said he expects Moon, a human rights lawyer, to "clear up all the corruption that is deeply settled in all the public systems of Korean society."

A member of a Catholic young adult group also said Moon has a lot of support from young Catholics.

"Moon took a leading position in impeaching former president Park, and people especially supported him for this cause."

Moon has vowed to ensure former President Park Geun-hye's trial for corruption takes place.

She is charged with bribing top officials of major Korean corporations, including Samsung.

Park is accused of colluding top executives in exchange for policies that gave them majority control of their companies.
Most of her supporters are older Koreans.

Source

• The Tablet
• Asia News
• Chanel News Asia
• Image: Prensa Latina