Ivanka Trump will lead the White House delegation and represent her father at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic winter games closing ceremony.
She was asked to head the presidential delegation for the closing ceremony by President Trump and the US Olympic Committee, an official told CNN.
When she is in South Korea, the first daughter is also expected to attend some of the sporting events that US athletes are competing in.
Other members of the White House delegation are yet to be official announced.
First Daughter Ivanka Trump (above at last week’s State of the Union address) will lead the White House delegation at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic winter games closing ceremony
Ivanka, in her role as a White House adviser, worked with the International Olympic Committee to secure the 2028 summer Olympics Games in Los Angeles.
Vice President Mike Pence left on Monday to attend the opening ceremony as part of a six day trip through Asia, which includes a stop off in Japan.
Pence is aiming to ensure North Korea doesn’t ‘hijack’ the games as it participates on a joint team with the South.
He is set to hold symbolic events of his own to highlight the North’s human rights abuses and nuclear ambitions, according to White House officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to preview the trip publicly.
‘We’ll be telling the truth about North Korea at every stop,’ Pence told reporters after touring missile defense facilities Monday that monitor and could respond to a launch by the North.
Ivanka is also expected to attend some of the sporting events that US athletes are competing in. The Team USA processing station in pictured above in South Korea
Vice President Mike Pence left on Monday to attend the opening ceremony as part of a six day trip through Asia, which includes a stop off in Japan
‘We’ll be ensuring that whatever cooperation that’s existing between North and South Korea today on Olympic teams does not cloud the reality of a regime that must continue to be isolated by the world community.’
Pence is bringing Otto Warmbier’s father Fred – the US student who died in 2017 shortly after he was released from North Korean detention – to the opening ceremony later this week.
‘He & his wife remind the world of the atrocities happening in N Korea,’ Pence tweeted Monday before departing Washington.
Pence did not rule out the possibility of meeting with the North Korean delegation during the trip.
‘Let me say President Trump has said he always believes in talking, but I haven’t requested any meeting,’ Pence said. ‘But we’ll see what happens.’
North Korea is sending its nominal head of state, Kim Jong Nam – the highest-level visitor to the south from the North in recent memory.
Pence is bringing Otto Warmbier’s father Fred to the opening ceremony later this week. Fred and his wife Cindy are pictured at Trump’s SOTU address last week