ED Ivanka in PyeongChang

Senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump watches her father, U.S. President Donald Trump, during a Feb. 14 event at the Oval Office. She will arrive in Korea later this week for the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. / Reuters-Yonhap

Expectation grows for US-North Korea contact

Ivanka Trump, the senior adviser and first daughter of U.S. President Donald Trump, is coming to South Korea to attend the closing ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Sunday, at a time when dialogue is essential to help ease tension on the Korean Peninsula.

In her capacity as virtual leader of the U.S. team participating in the final event of the global ice and snow festival, Ivanka is expected to attract international attention amid the possibility of U.S. and North Korean talks during her stay here, either official or unofficial, as a senior North Korean delegation is also expected to attend the ceremony.

Earlier North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent high-level officials and his sister Kim Yo-jong as a special envoy to the opening ceremony for the Olympics and extended an invitation to President Moon Jae-in to visit Pyongyang for an inter-Korean summit. Moon accepted the offer on the condition of Pyongyang resuming talks with Washington. However, it is still premature to expect a third inter-Korean summit soon.

The summit could come into being only after North Korea and the U.S. get together to discuss the North’s denuclearization and address the repressive country’s human rights issue. A mood for talks could grow over the weekend with influential figures from the two sides visiting here.

The North’s human rights issue is, in fact, a serious question, but it should not become a stumbling block. What’s important is both sides should sit together to discuss major issues.

Ivanka reportedly plans to meet women defectors from the North while here, hinting that the U.S. is determined to address the North’s brutal human rights violations anew through their testimony.

We hope that Ivanka’s first visit to the South will pave the way for dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea and then lead to the proposed inter-Korean summit at an early date. For its part, the North is required to break the ice by taking advantage of the ripening atmosphere for dialogue, and Ivanka could be a good go-between for the Trump administration.