close
Friday April 26, 2024

Ivanka arrives in South Korea for Olympics

By AFP
February 23, 2018
Ivanka Trump (C), advisor to and daughter of US President Donald Trump, arrives at Incheon International Airport in Incheon on February 23, 2018, to attend the closing ceremony of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games on February 25. / AFP / POOL / Ahn Young-joon

SEOUL: US President Donald Trump´s daughter Ivanka arrived in Seoul Friday to attend the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics closing ceremony, where a top North Korean general will also be present.

"We´re very very excited to attend the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, to cheer for Team USA and to reaffirm our strong and enduring commitment with people of the Republic of Korea", she said after arriving at Incheon airport on a commercial flight.

The White House said Trump had asked his eldest daughter -- who is also one of his top advisers -- to travel to Pyeongchang to lead up a "high level delegation".

The North will send an eight-member delegation Sunday headed by Kim Yong Chol, a top general who oversees inter-Korean relations for the ruling Workers´ Party, Seoul´s unification ministry said.

The Games have seen a flurry of cross-border diplomacy, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un´s sister and US Vice President Mike Pence both attending the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang earlier this month.

But officials in both Seoul and Washington say there will not be a meeting between Ivanka Trump and Kim Yong Chol.