Pope Calls for Dialogue in Korea, Ban on Nuclear Weapons via Reuters

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis called on Monday for all nations to support dialogue to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula and to work for a legally binding ban on nuclear weapons.

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The pope addressed diplomats a day before North Korea and South Korea are due to hold talks expected to address North Korea’s participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

Earlier this month, after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un asserted that he had a nuclear button at the ready, Trump tweeted that the U.S. button at his disposal was bigger and more powerful.

“Nuclear weapons must be banned,” Francis said, quoting a document issued by Pope John XXIII at the height of the Cold War and adding that there is “no denying that the conflagration could be started by some chance and unforeseen circumstance”.

He noted that the Holy See was among 122 states that last year agreed to a United Nations treaty to ban nuclear weapons. The United States, Britain, France and others boycotted the talks that led to the treaty, instead pledging commitment to a decades-old Non-Proliferation Treaty.