PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — President Trump’s daughter toured the 2018 Winter Olympics on Saturday, the morning after telling South Korea’s president that she would use her visit to the PyeongChang Games to advocate maximum pressure on North Korea to halt its nuclear program.

Ivanka Trump, one of her father’s close advisers and a winter sports enthusiast herself, was leading the U.S. delegation at Sunday’s closing ceremony. Under cloudy skies, she watched her first event Saturday morning – Big Air snowboarding – before heading over to the American team’s headquarters, USA House, to visit some Olympians.

Among those she met: Garrett Hines, a former U.S. bobsledder and Army reservist.

“I heard you are part of the reserves. That’s incredible,” Trump said. “Thank you for your service, and thank you for serving as an inspiration to so many people in this capacity.”

Before coming to the Olympic city in northeastern South Korea, Trump met and dined in the capital with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who highlighted to her how the Olympics has served as a vehicle for dialogue between the two Koreas.

At a closed-door meeting before a banquet Friday night at the presidential compound, Moon told Trump that talks on denuclearization and the inter-Korean dialogue must move forward side by side, Moon’s press secretary told reporters.

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Trump responded by pushing for joint efforts by the U.S. and South Korea to apply maximum pressure on North Korea.

On Saturday, Trump toured Olympic venues. She watched snowboarders go on runs at the Big Air jump and saw American snowboarder Kyle Mack take a silver medal.

A smiling Trump, wearing a Team USA hat and red snowsuit, chatted with members of her delegation and South Korea first lady Kim Jung-suk. Also with her was IOC board member and 1998 hockey gold medalist Angela Ruggiero.

After the event ended, Trump spoke with some of the South Korean athletes who were guests of the delegation and posed for selfies.

Ivanka Trump’s appearance at the closing on behalf of the White House and the United States is a softer bookend to Vice President Mike Pence’s awkward visit during the opening ceremony.

She has some popularity in Asia, and the perception of her as a smooth player in her father’s administration – and, not inconsequentially, a younger one as well – allows the United States a photogenic representative at the end of a games dominated by unusually adept PR moves from North Korea.

While the games appear to have paved the way for possible rapprochement between the Koreas, U.S. and North Korean officials have yet to make direct contact. Earlier this week, the U.S. government said Pence had been set to meet North Korean officials during his visit to South Korea, but that the North Korean side canceled at the last minute.

For now, there are no signs that Ivanka Trump would meet Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party Central Committee, who is to attend the closing ceremony.


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