Pope Francis will consider possibility of N. Korea trip under right conditions – Vatican

Pope Francis will seriously consider the possibility of an unprecedented visit to North Korea but some conditions will have to be met, Reuters reported on Friday, citing a senior Vatican official. The visit would be the first by a pope to the east Asian state, which does not allow priests to be permanently stationed there. South Korean President Moon Jae-in relayed a verbal invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the Pope during a meeting in the Vatican on Thursday. “The Pope expressed his willingness. We have to wait for [the invitation] to be formalized,” Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s second-ranking official, said on Thursday evening. Conditions could be determined later, “once we start thinking in earnest about the possibility of making this trip,” Parolin said. The Pope “is willing to make the trip but a trip of this kind will need serious preparation,” the cardinal added.