Not long after President Trump announced that his daughter had traveled to South Korea to represent the U.S. delegation in the closing ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympics, Ivanka Trump is already causing a stir over the tensions with North Korea. According to The Guardian, Ivanka seemingly clashed with South Korea’s continued emphasis on maintaining a peaceful dialogue with its northern neighbor when she reiterated the United States’ efforts to apply “maximum pressure” in order to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
Ivanka made the comments at a dinner held late Friday night:
“I thank you for hosting us all here tonight as we reaffirm our bonds of friendship, of cooperation, of partnership and reaffirm our commitment to our maximum pressure campaign to ensure that the Korean Peninsula is denuclearised.”
The line seemingly repeated comments made earlier by Press Secretary Sarah Sanders to reporters, during which she said the White House would “continue a campaign of maximum pressure” that revolves around the latest batch of sanctions. Yet as The Guardian notes, these comments here seem to fly in the face of those made by South Korean President Moon Jae-in. “Active dialogue is being held between the South and the North amid the North’s participation in the Olympics,” he told the Yonhap news agency. “This is greatly contributing to easing tension on the Korean Peninsula and improving the South-North relationship.”
(Via The Guardian)