High-level North Korean delegates arrive in the South

SEOUL (AFP) – A blacklisted North Korean general arrived in the South on Sunday for the Winter Olympics closing ceremony, which will also be attended by US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka.

The visit by Kim Yong Chol, who led an eight-member high-level delegation that crossed the Demilitarized Zone in the morning, is the final piece of the Games-led diplomacy that has dominated headlines from Pyeongchang.

Kim Yong Chol's delegation crossed the heavily fortified border into the South on Sunday morning, a spokesman for Seoul's unification ministry said.

Television footage showed Kim Yong Chol, wearing a dark long coat, being greeted by Seoul's vice unification minister Chun Haesung before getting into a black sedan prepared by the South, while others boarded a bus and a van.

Kim's nomination as the leader of the group is controversial in the South, where he is widely blamed for a spate of attacks including the torpedoing of Seoul's Cheonan warship in 2010, with the loss of 46 lives. Pyongyang denies responsibility.

Conservative lawmakers staged an overnight protest near the border with the North, joined by hundreds of other activists.

Images showed the protesters waving banners including ''Arrest Kim Yong Chol!'' and ''Kim Yong Chol should kneel in front of the victims' families and apologize!''

Kim is blacklisted under Seoul's unilateral sanctions against the North – meaning he is subject to an assets freeze – although he is not named in the UN Security Council's measures.

On Friday the US Treasury blacklisted 28 ships, 27 companies and one person, imposing an asset freeze and barring US citizens from dealing with them, in what Donald Trump described as the ''heaviest sanctions ever'' levied on Pyongyang.