Pope Francis, right, greets President Moon Jae-in for a private audience at the Vatican in this Oct. 18, 2018,photo. Yonhap file

By Jung Da-min

Pope Francis is unlikely to visit North Korea this year, with the Vatican saying his scheduled overseas trips for the remainder of the year do not include any Asian countries.

A possible visit to Japan, which earlier spurred expectations of a landmark visit to North Korea as part of the Pope's tour of Asian countries, is still under review, according to a Vatican official, last Friday, quoted by U.S. media outlet Voice of America.

The Vatican had repeatedly said the Pope's visit to North Korea was unlikely in the near future because too many other trips were either scheduled or in the pipelines.

Reports of a possible visit to North Korea emerged last October when President Moon Jae-in visited the Vatican to convey North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's wish for a possible papal visit.

The Pope said then that he would seriously consider the visit once the invitation was formalized, according to Cheong Wa Dae at the time of President Moon's meeting. Moon was planning to use the visit to the North to win backing for his drive to bring permanent peace to the Korean Peninsula.

The two Koreas began a thawing of diplomatic tensions last year, holding three summits, but tensions on the Peninsula have recently risen with the North firing short-range missiles on May 9, following a test-launch of "unidentified projectiles," most likely short-range missiles, May 4.

Seoul and Washington have so far said they are closely checking whether the North's weapons tests involved ballistic missiles, which would violate United Nations sanctions.