NK missiles fire as Seoul greets pope
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POPE Francis called for renewed efforts to forge peace on the Korean Peninsula and for both sides to avoid “fruitless” criticisms and shows of force when he began a five-day visit to South Korea as North Korea fired five projectiles into the sea.
In the first speech of his first trip to Asia, Francis told South Korean President Park Geun-hye and government officials yesterday that peace required forgiveness, cooperation and mutual respect. He said diplomacy must be encouraged so that listening and dialogue replace “mutual recriminations, fruitless criticisms and displays of force.”
The Argentine pope spoke in English, the first English speech of his pontificate. Usually he speaks in Italian or his native Spanish, but the Vatican said he would deliver at least four speeches in English on the trip to accommodate his Asian audiences.
North Korea’s apparent test firing was conducted from Wonsan on its east coast and the initial three short-range projectiles flew about 220 kilometers, according to a South Korean Defense Ministry official.
After an initial three firings an hour before Francis arrived, North Korea followed up with two others a short time after the pope landed.
North Korea has conducted an unusually large number of short-range missile and artillery test firings this year and has expressed anger over annual military drills between the United States and South Korea, which it says are invasion preparations.
A new round of drills, which Seoul and Washington call routine and defensive, are expected to start in coming days.
Neither Pope Francis nor Park referred to the firings in their public remarks.
At an airport south of Seoul on the first papal visit in a quarter century, the pope shook hands with relatives of victims of a South Korean ferry sinking in which more than 300 people died.
He also met two descendants of Korean martyrs who died rather than renounce their faith.
Francis plans to beatify 124 Korean martyrs who founded the church on the peninsula in the 18th century, hoping to give South Korea’s vibrant and growing church new models for holiness and evangelization.
Some elderly Catholics wiped tears from their faces, bowing deeply as they greeted the pope on the tarmac. A boy and girl in traditional Korean dress presented Francis with a bouquet, and he bowed in return.
The pope then stepped into a small, locally made car for the trip into Seoul where the official welcome ceremony and speeches took place.
Park said she hoped the pope’s presence would heal “long wounds of division,” referring to the 1950-53 Korean War, which continues to divide the Koreas along the world’s most heavily guarded border.
“Division has been a big scar for all Koreans,” she said.
Francis sought to encourage the pursuit of peace.
“Korea’s quest for peace is a cause close to our hearts, for it affects the stability of the entire area and indeed of our whole war-weary world,” he said. “May all of us dedicate these days to peace: to praying for it and deepening our resolve to achieve it.”
Park credited Catholics in South Korea with playing a big part in making the country what it has become. South Korea has risen from poverty, war and dictatorship into Asia’s fourth biggest economy. She called the Korean martyrs “pioneers who spread freedom and equality,” and said their sacrifice helped develop Korean society.
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