Unification Minister Lee In-young held meetings with the chief of the World Food Program (WFP) and a senior Vatican official during a trip to Rome and discussed issues related to North Korea, the ministry said Sunday.

The meetings with David Beasley, executive director of the U.N. food agency, and Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, the first Prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, took place Saturday as Lee was in Rome to accompany President Moon Jae-in.

During the meeting with Beasley, the two sides exchanged assessments of the North's recent food situation and discussed ways of cooperation to address humanitarian issues in the North, according to the ministry.

The meeting with Turkson included discussions on roles the Vatican can play to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula, such as humanitarian cooperation and efforts to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War, the ministry said. (Yonhap)