The Daily Mail, a UK daily newspaper, quoted Park Ji Won, head of the intelligence agencies in South Korea as saying that Pope Francis II, Leader of the Catholic Church in the world, may pay an official and pastoral visit to North Korea.
The South Korean security official added that if Pope comes to North Korea, the totalitarian state, it will be the first visit of that sort.
Park Ji Won affirmed that he will meet with Archbishop Kim Hee-Jung and the Vatican's ambassador to South Korea, Archbishop Alfred Zurib, to discuss a possible visit to Pyongyang, the British newspaper quoted the Vatican News Agency as saying.
It is thought that there are hundreds of Catholics in North Korea who perform rituals under the auspice of the Catholic League in North Korea away from the hierarchy of the other Catholic sects in the world.
It is worth noting that the leader of North Korea invited Pope Francis II to visit his country in 2018.
He replied then that he thinks of visiting North Korea in specific circumstances if such a visit may bring peace to the Korean Peninsula.
However, Moon Jae, a spokesman for South Korea's president, said that Kim Jong-un, leader of North Korea invited the Pope to Pyongyang.
Earlier in January this year, North Korea closed its borders with the neighboring on the backdrop of the breakout of the Coronavirus (known also as COVID-19) disease.
That country faces now a severe shortage in foodstuffs after stopping imports and aids.
The government of North Korea claimed that the pandemic couldn't invade its territories so far, despite examining thousands of people across the country.
But experts warn that pretension is not exactly at all.
They indicated that any outbreak may devastate the rickety infrastructure in isolated North Korea, which suffers badly from cycles of droughts and floods.
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