The mass coincided with the launch of the annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian drill, a largely computer-simulated test of combat readiness for a North Korean invasion involving tens of thousands of South Korean and US troops.
North Korea had repeatedly called for the exercise to be cancelled, and on Sunday its military joint chiefs of staff threatened to “mercilessly open the strongest… pre-emptive strike” if it goes ahead.
The Korean peninsula was divided in 1948 and the split was solidified by the 1950-53 Korean War, which concluded without a peace treaty leaving the two Koreas still technically at war.
At the very moment Pope Francis landed in South Korea at the start of his visit on Thursday, North Korea carried out a series of short-range rocket launches into the sea off its east coast.
In his first public comments on arriving, the pope had stressed that peace on the divided peninsula could only be achieved through dialogue, “rather than … displays of force”.
The Catholic Church, like any other religion, is only allowed to operate in North Korea under extremely tight restrictions, and within the confines of the state-controlled Korean Catholics Association.
It has no hierarchical links with the Vatican and there are no known Catholic priests or nuns.
A recent report compiled by a UN Commission of Inquiry into human rights in North Korea concluded that practising Christianity outside the state-sanctioned church amounted to a “political crime”.
South Korea has a thriving Catholic community, and large crowds followed the pope everywhere, including a gathering of around 800,000 people Saturday for an open-air mass in Seoul.
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