(2nd LD) N.K.'s high-level delegation comes to S. Korea for Olympics' closing ceremony

(ATTN: UPDATES with more info throughout)

SEOUL/PAJU, Feb. 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's high-level delegation led by a top official accused of having masterminded the 2010 sinking of a South Korean warship arrived in the South on Sunday to attend the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Kim Yong-chol, a key party official handling inter-Korean affairs, arrived at a checkpoint in Paju, just south of the inter-Korean border via a land route at around 9:53 a.m., heading an eight-member delegation for a three-day trip to South Korea, according to pool reports.

The 72-year-old Kim is standing at the center of a controversy as he is suspected of having orchestrated the North's torpedoing of the corvette Cheonan in March 2010. The naval attack left 46 South Korean sailors dead.

Conservative lawmakers and families of the victims of the sinking held a rally to block his trip to the South on the route to the customs, immigration and quarantine (CIQ) office in Paju.

The South Korean government said it has accepted Kim's trip despite negative public sentiment, as it believes that the trip will help improve inter-Korean ties and pave the way for dialogue toward peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The recent Olympics-driven rapprochement between the two Koreas came in the wake of tensions that were heightened last year by the North's nuclear and missile tests.

The arrival of the North's delegation coincides with a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka to the South, fanning speculation about a possible meeting between officials from the United States and North Korea on the sidelines of the Olympics.

Ivanka Trump, who serves as an adviser to the president, arrived in Seoul Friday for a four-day stay.

The U.S. has made it clear that it will maintain its campaign of "maximum pressure" to make North Korea give up its nuclear weapons.

It unveiled the "heaviest ever" sanctions on North Korea on Friday, targeting 27 shipping and trade firms and 28 vessels and one individual suspected of helping North Korea evade existing sanctions.

South Korea's presidential office sees a low chance of direct contact between the U.S. and the North on the sidelines of the Olympics.

But some analysts still anticipate a surprise encounter between the rivals this time following an aborted U.S.-North Korea meeting earlier this month in the South on the fringe of the opening ceremony.

The high-level delegation included a senior North Korean diplomat in charge of U.S. affairs, Seoul's unification ministry said, raising the prospect of discussion about the nuclear standoff with the North.

Choe Kang-il, a deputy director-general for North American affairs at North Korea's foreign ministry, came to the South as a member of the delegation's support staff, the ministry said.

North Korea dispatched a high-level delegation that included its ceremonial head of state, Kim Yong-nam, and Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of the North's leader Kim Jong-un, from Feb. 9-11 to attend the Olympics' opening ceremony.

Kim Yo-jong gave President Moon Jae-in a letter from her brother that included an invitation to the South's leader to visit Pyongyang at the earliest possible date.

Vice President Mike Pence led the U.S. delegation to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics earlier this month, but there was no meeting between Pence and Kim Yo-jong.

But the U.S. said Wednesday that Pence had planned to secretly meet with the North's delegation at the request of North Korea, but Pyongyang abruptly canceled the planned meeting on Feb. 10.

A flurry of sports diplomacy between the two Koreas began after the North's leader expressed a willingness to send a delegation to the Winter Olympics in his New Year's Day message.

The North's delegation is likely to repeat Kim Jong-un's invitation to the South's president when it meets with President Moon.

Moon hopes that better inter-Korean ties will pave the way for broader dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea over denuclearization.

sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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