Ivanka Trump arrived in South Korea on Friday to cheer Team USA at the Winter Olympics and met President Moon Jae-in for dinner ahead of a weekend at the Games.
Her arrival is the latest geopolitical maneuver between the US and North Korea after Kim Jong Un sent his sister Kim Yo Jong to the opening ceremony – upstaging Mike Pence and securing a propaganda victory in the process.
Pence was surprised to be sat so close to Kim at the opening ceremony after he claims she snubbed a chance to hold talks with him just hours earlier.
Ivanka will watch Team USA at the closing ceremony alongside Kim Yong Chol, head of North Korea’s national intelligence bureau
Ivanka Trump met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday night as she arrived to attend the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang
Ivanka swept in Seoul for dinner with Moon after Kim Jong Un sent his glamorous sister Kim Yo Jong to the opening ceremony, scoring a propaganda win for the North
Ivanka appeared relaxed and happy as she sat down alongside Moon, flanked by the US delegation she is leading to the closing ceremony
Moon said before the dinner that he planned to raise the issue of talks between North Korea and the United States with Ivanka
South Korean President Moon Jae-In talks with Ivanka Trump during a dinner at the Presidential Blue House in Seoul
The first daughter dined with Moon at the Presidential Blue House in Seoul having landed at Incheon International Airport hours earlier
Moon said he would raise the issue of direct talks between the US and North Korea during his dinner with Ivanka, though officials said it is unlikely that she will meet with the North’s delegation this weekend.
On Saturday she is due to cheer on Team USA on the final day of the competition before leading the US delegation at the closing ceremony on Sunday.
The arrival of Ivanka has inevitably drawn comparisons to Yo Jong’s appearance, which captivated the South Korean media.
Ivanka told reporters as she arrived at Incheon airport that she is ‘very, very excited to attend the 2018 Winter Olympic Games (and) cheer for team USA.’
Chol will arrive in the country on Sunday and is due to stay for three days afterward, during which he will hold talks with Moon.
Moon hopes to make the Olympics an avenue for peace on the divided Korean Peninsula.
But while the games appear to have paved a way for possible rapprochement between the Koreas, U.S. and North Korean officials have yet to make direct contact.
After meeting with President Moon (left) Ivanka was led inside by Kim who motioned for her to remove her shoes before entering (right)
Ivanka will stay in South Korea for four days while cheering on Team USA at the Winter Olympics before attending the closing ceremony
Ivanka and Moon were also joined by South Korean First Lady Kim Jung-sook
Ivanka Trump arrived in South Korea for a four-day stay to lead a U.S. delegation to the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics
President Trump tweeted shortly after Ivanka touched down in Incheon, throwing his full support behind his daughter
Moon met Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and Kim Yong Nam, North Korea’s nominal head of state, a day after the opening ceremony and urged North Korea to do more to engage in a dialogue with the United States.
Relations between the North and the United States hit an all-time low during 2017 after Kim tested a record number of ballistic missiles including one which can likely range the whole of the United States.
Donald Trump repeatedly engaged in a fiery war of words with Kim, at one point bragging that his nuclear button was ‘bigger’ than the dictator’s.
He also threatened to unleash ‘fire and fury like the world has never seen’ in the event that Kim attacked the US or its allies, and told the UN he would ‘totally destroy’ North Korea if war broke out in the region.
In return, Kim branded Trump a ‘mentally deranged US dotard’ and vowed to continue testing missiles before declaring the North’s nuclear program complete.
In the middle of the two warring leaders, Moon attempted to play peace-maker, often suggesting that America would need his permission before starting a war – a claim the US flatly denied.
North Korea has used the Olympics as an opportunity to stage a charm offensive, flying in a squad of cheerleaders and allowing its ice skaters to compete under a unified Korean flag with their counterparts from the South.
Ivanka Trump arrived in South Korea on Friday evening leading the US delegation which will attend the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics
The first daughter opted for a white and black hounds tooth coat, a white roll-neck jumper, matching skirt and heavy back boots as she climbed off the plane
Ivanka will dine with South Korea President Moon Jae-in on Friday night, attend the games on Saturday and then watch the closing ceremony on Sunday
Ivanka is leading a delegation which including White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (pictured left)
All the while Kim has been keen to dangle the prize of Korean reunification in the air, suggesting that peace could be possible without American interference.
However, analysts have warned that the North is unlikely to give up its nuclear weapons in return for peace on the peninsula, and is playing world leaders along.
As a reminder of the kind of regime Kim runs, Pence attended the opening ceremony alongside a delegation of North Korean defectors.
Each brought with them their own story of brutal repression under Kim’s rule, and were joined by Fred Warmbier, the father of student Otto who died after being sentenced to prison with hard labor for stealing a propaganda poster.
Warmbier was on a trip to the North when he was caught on CCTV taking the poster for a dare, and was subsequently sentenced to 15 years in jail.
However, he served just 17 months of that sentence before being handed back to US authorities in a coma, dying just days later.
While Pence’s stunt did draw some media attention, it was largely overshadowed by Kim Yo Jong’s attendance which marked the first time a member of the Kim dynasty has come South since the Korean War.
The White House adviser also opted for a similar monochrome color palette as she departed her New York apartment for the airport on Thursday
Ivanka’s presence at the closing ceremony comes after Kim Jong Un sent his glamorous sister, Kim Yo Jong, to the opening of the games where she sat close to Mike Pence
North Korea will also send a delegation to the closing ceremony led by General Kim Yong Chol, though official say it is ‘unlikely’ he will meet Ivanka