From Crying Kid to Sanctions: A Look Into Ivanka's 'Wonderful' S Korea Visit

Ivanka Trump, the daughter of US President Donald Trump and the president's advisor has thanked South Korea for a “wonderful” trip to the country. She flew out to Pyeongchang, the 2018 Olympic Games host-city, last week and stayed until the Games’ Closing Ceremony.

While leaving the country on Monday, she spoke about her “wonderful” trip and took to Twitter to voice her appreciation.

While Ivanka did enjoy a warm welcome in Pyeongchang, she gave one little boy a fright, according to the UK's The Telegraph the boy cried and screamed after meeting Ivanka. 

Sports Action at the Olympics

During her trip, Ivanka also made sure to support Team USA at some of the competitions. She attended the Mass Start Speed Skating, Curling, Snowboard Big Air competitions and just hung out with US athletes. She made sure to document her experience on social media.

New North Korea Sanctions 

But it wasn't just sporting action for Ivanka, her first official event of the trip was dinner with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday. President Moon thanked Ivanka for her visit.

It's believed US and South Korean joint efforts to apply “joint maximum pressure” on Pyongyang were the topic of their official meeting, as on Friday the US president said he was imposing its largest package of sanctions to pressure North Korea into giving up its nuclear and missile programs. 

This comes after a rapprochement between the two Koreas at the Olympics. The South Korean president has called these Olympics the “peace games,” and at the start of the competition North Korean leader Kim Jong-un passed on an invitation to President Moon Jae-in for talks in Pyongyang, setting the stage for the first meeting of Korean leaders in more than 10 years.

Ivanka and the Closing Ceremony Mixed Reactions

On Sunday Ivanka Trump led the US delegation at the 2018 Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony, but not everyone was happy about it. 

One of the US athlete's, skier Gus Kenworthy, took to Twitter to criticize Ivanka. 

But unlike Mr. Kenworthy, other athletes and members of the Team USA delegation were excited to meet President Trump's daughter. 

​During the Closing Ceremony Ivanka Trump sat just a row away from General Kim Yong-chol, the high-ranking official leading the North Korean delegation, but had no interaction with any representatives from Pyongyang.

​According to Seoul's presidential office, General Kim Yong-chol, who is blacklisted by the US, told President Moon Jae-in that Pyongyang has “enough” willingness to begin dialogue with Washington, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.