Ivanka Trump hails US-South Korea ties as Seoul gears up for North talks

US president Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump hailed the "strong and enduring commitment" between the US and South Korea during a visit to the South, as the country prepared itself for more talks with North Korea.

Washington, meanwhile, was preparing to announce its biggest set of sanctions to date against North Korea to pressure Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear programme.

The US, which backed South Korea in the Korean War (1950-53) and has thousands of troops stationed at the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas, is keen to emphasise the close relationship with South Korea after weeks of rapprochement between North and South centred on the Winter Olympics.

“We are very excited to attend the 2018 Winter Olympic Games to cheer for Team USA and to reaffirm our strong and enduring commitment with the people of the Republic of Korea,” said Ms Trump, who is an adviser to the US president, as she arrived at Incheon airport to attend the closing ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

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During her visit she will have dinner with president Moon Jae-in and meet US athletes before the closing ceremony.

Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un, became the most senior North Korean leader to visit the South when she attended the February 9th opening ceremony as part of a delegation. Her brother said he hoped to boost the "warm climate of reconciliation and dialogue" after the Olympics visit.

Ms Trump's visit coincides with a planned visit by a North Korean delegation for the closing ceremony, headed up by Kim Yong-chol, vice-chairman of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.

Kim Yong-chol is blamed for sinking a South Korean navy vessel at Cheonan in 2010 that killed 46 sailors.

Rumour of meeting

The fact the two visits overlap has led some to believe there could be a meeting between the US and North Korean officials at the games.

Vice-president Mike Pence was reportedly due to meet the North Korean delegation but the North cancelled the meeting at the last minute.

Reuters cited unnamed senior US officials saying the new sanctions were “the largest package of new sanctions against the North Korea regime”.

There are fears that tougher sanctions could undermine the new closeness between the two Koreas as they try to line up a summit.

North Korea accused UN secretary general António Guterres of “picking a quarrel” with Pyongyang after he praised international sanctions against North Korea during the Munich security conference last week.

"This is nothing but an absurd sophistry inappropriate to his duty as secretary general of the United Nations and only make us to think whether he is a kind of henchman who is representing the United States, " North Korea's mission to the UN said.

China said on Friday it was examining a report of a ship-to-ship transfer between a North Korean-flagged tanker and a smaller ship bearing Chinese characters on the high seas that is "strongly suspected" of violating UN sanctions on North Korea, in the third such incident reported by Japan in the past month.