The decision came in the first meeting of a commission to prepare for the papal visit to the country scheduled for Aug. 14-18. The meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Chung Hong-won, was held at the Government Complex building in Seoul.
During the five-day visit, Pope Francis will participate in a meeting of Asian Catholic youths and carry out a beatification ceremony for 124 Korean martyrs, according to South Korea’s Catholic Church.
It will be his first trip to Asia since being elected in March last year. He would be the second pontiff to visit South Korea. The late Pope John Paul II traveled to Seoul twice – one in 1984 and the other in 1989.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com