Ivanka Trump told South Korea’s president on Friday that she will use her visit to the Winter Olympics to advocate maximum pressure on North Korea to halt its nuclear program.
The daughter of President Donald Trump is leading the US delegation at this weekend’s closing ceremony for the Pyeongchang Games, AP reported.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, however, highlighted at a banquet at the presidential compound how the Olympics have served as a vehicle for dialogue between the two Koreas.
The banquet’s start was delayed by about half an hour as Moon and Trump held a closed-door meeting.
In her remarks, Trump said she was in South Korea to celebrate the Olympics and to reaffirm the US commitment to a “maximum pressure campaign to ensure that the Korean Peninsula is denuclearized.”
A high-level North Korean delegation will also attend the closing ceremony, but the South Korean government said it’s unlikely that Trump will meet the North Koreans. Vice President Mike Pence, who attended the Olympics’ opening ceremony, sat awkwardly in a VIP box with the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un behind him. The two had no apparent contact.
South Korean media said Moon would emphasize the importance of holding US-North Korea talks in the meeting with Trump.
Moon hopes to make the Olympics an avenue for peace on the divided Korean Peninsula.
“North Korea’s participation in the Winter Olympic Games has served as an opportunity for us to engage in active discussions between the two Koreas and this has led to lowering of tensions on the peninsula and an improvement in inter-Korean relations,” Moon said.
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