At Olympic Games, N Korean leader’s sister takes VIP seat

Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s younger sister took her place among dignitaries from around the world, including USVice President Mike Pence, at the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Friday.

Hers was an unprecedented visit to South Korea that is the latest move in an extraordinary show of Olympic diplomacy with Seoul that could prove to be a major challenge to the Trump administration’s hardline Korea policies.

As the opening ceremony began, she and Moon exchanged a historic handshake and spoke briefly. They smiled broadly, though it was not immediately known what they said.

Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, and Kim Yong Nam, the North’s 90-year-old nominal head of state, were seated behind Moon and his wife, while Pence and his wife were seated beside the Moons and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

At the age of 30, Kim Yo Jong is quite possibly the most powerful woman in North Korea. Just a few years younger than her brother, she is believed to be Kim’s closest confidant and is a senior cadre in North Korea’s ruling party.

Her arrival on Kim’s private jet with a coterie of 22 officials was broadcast live on South Korean television.

Looking confident and relaxed, she had a brief meeting at the airport with South Korean officials, including Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, before being whisked away in a black limousine and catching the high-speed train to the mountains of Pyeongchang.

PYEONGCHANG,SOUTHKOREA:North