SEOUL (SE): The Committee for the Reconciliation of the Korean People of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea held a special Mass on June 25 at Peace World Park in Imjingak, South Korea, near the demilitarised zone commemorating the 69th anniversary of outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. South Korean bishops were joined by around 20,000 people from dioceses around the country in praying for peace on the divided peninsula, in the first such event in eight years.
 

HONG KONG (SE): Talks between Donald Trump, the president of United States of America, and Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, are truly historic and bring hope for the start of a new era of peace, Archbishop Alfred Xuereb, apostolic nuncio to South Korea and Mongolia, said in a Vatican News report on June 12.
 
He said that a “very important” new page has been turned and that, “It marks the beginning of a still long and arduous journey, but we are hopeful because the start has been very positive, very good.” 

VATICAN (SE): Pope Francis hailed the agreement reached at the recent inter-Korean summit regarding denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, and expressed the hope that that their courageous commitment may achieve “a path of sincere dialogue for a Korean Peninsula that is free of nuclear weapons,” Vatican News reported 
 

SEOUL (UCAN): Bishop Peter Lee Ki-heon of Uijeongbu, the president of the Korean Bishops’ Committee for the Reconciliation of the Korean People, has been waiting years for this moment: the leaders of the two divided Koreas scheduled to meet for a historic summit just inside South Korean territory on April 27.
 
The bishop released a statement, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, on April 13, expressing his belief that the summit will end decades of struggle and open a new era of peace on the peninsula.
 

VATICAN (Agencies): In a first, the Vatican has been invited to attend the February 5 to 7 annual general meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as an official observer, in Pyeongchang, South Korea, L’Osservatore Romano reported on February 2. 
 
The delegation, led by Monsignor Melchor Sanchez de Toca Alameda, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture and head of its Culture and Sport section, will also be present at the opening ceremony of the Winter Games which run from February 9 to 25.