Pyongyang Pope Calls for Prayers for Summit
By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
Pope Benedict XVI on Monday called for prayers for the people in South and North Korea, whose leaders will hold an historic summit in Pyongyang from Oct. 2-4 to promote peace and reconciliation on the peninsula.
He said that developments in the dialogue between the two Koreas ``bring hope that the efforts aimed at reconciliation now under way can work to help the Korean people and bring about stability and peace to the entire region.''
His remarks came from his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, outside Rome, where the Pope was talking to pilgrims about the recent situation in Myanmar. He said that he strongly hopes that a peaceful solution would be found in the Southeast Asian country.
President Roh Moo-hyun, who is to embark on a visit to Pyongyang today for the 2007 inter-Korean summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, met the Pope in Vatican City in February and asked for support for the peace process here.
Roh and other political as well as Catholic leaders from South Korea have often asked the Vatican to consider a simultaneous visit by the Pope to both Koreas. The late Pope John Paul II visited South Korea in 1984 and 1989.