Vatican aims to head off US-North Korea nuclear standoff
30 Oct 2017 10:51 PM IST
VATICAN CITY: The Vatican is hosting a conference next week aimed at trying to head off a threatened nuclear confrontation between the US and North Korea, bringing together 11 Nobel peace laureates and top UN and NATO officials as well as ambassadors from key countries.
Vatican spokesperson Greg Burke said on Monday that the Nov. 10-11 conference was part of the Vatican's long-standing effort to promote a nuclear weapons-free world.
But he denied that the conference, first reported by La Repubblica newspaper, represented a mediation effort by Pope Francis.
Francis has already urged Washington and Pyongyang to step back from the brink of war and urged mediation efforts by others.
It wasn't immediately clear if North Korea or China would be represented at the conference: Neither has diplomatic relations with
the Holy See.
Meanwhile, Senior defence officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan held trilateral talks and urged North Koreato walk away from its "destructive and reckless path" of weapons development, the US military said in
a statement. agencies
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