Ivanka Trump will attend Olympics Closing Ceremony with U.S. delegation
On Wednesday, White House officials announced that Ivanka Trump would lead a U.S. delegation to PyeongChang to attend the Closing Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Games. Ivanka Trump is the daughter of President Donald Trump, and she also serves as one of her father’s top advisers in the White House.
According to Yonhap News, the PyeongChang-bound delegation will also include press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Idaho Sen. James Risch, Gen. Vincent Brooks (the commander of U.S. Forces Korea), Mark Knapper of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, and former Olympic bobsledder Sgt. Shauna Rohbock, who is currently a member of the U.S. Army National Guard.
The White House also said that there are no plans for Ivanka Trump to meet with any officials from North Korea. Of course, that doesn’t guarantee she won’t be seated by any of them at the Closing Ceremony. Vice President Mike Pence attended the opening ceremony, and he was seated just in front of Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
While politics will certainly be discussed during Ivanka Trump’s visit, South Korean officials have told the media that it’s not the main purpose of her visit.
“The upcoming visit by adviser Ivanka is intended to celebrate the successful hosting of the Pyeongchang Olympics and highlight the mutual understanding of the South Korea-US alliance,” Noh Kyu-duk, spokesman for the foreign ministry in Seoul said Tuesday, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Ivanka and the rest of the delegation will arrive in PyeongChang on Friday. The same day, she’s scheduled to have dinner with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
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