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World leaders and dignitaries attending the Pyeongchang Olympics

26 heads of state and high ranking foreign dignitaries from 21 countries, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will be visiting South Korea for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, which will begin on Feb. 9, the Blue House announced on Jan. 29. During the Olympics, South Korean President Moon Jae-in is expected to engage in brisk summit diplomacy as he shuttles between Pyeongchang and Seoul.

“Heads of state and foreign dignitaries of equivalent rank from 16 countries will be with us at the opening ceremony to celebrate the beginning of the Pyeongchang Olympics,” said Nam Gwan-pyo, second vice director of the Blue House National Security Office, while making the announcement in the Blue House press room. Moon will be holding a reception for foreign dignitaries visiting the country before the opening ceremony on Feb. 9.

“President Moon is planning to have luncheons, dinners and meetings with the heads of state and foreign dignitaries from 14 countries, including the presidents of Germany and Slovenia and the UN Secretary-General, which will involve in-depth discussion about matters of mutual interest and meaningful measures of cooperation,” Nam said. “The Pyeongchang Olympics will be the first event featuring summit-level multilateral diplomacy to be held in South Korea since President Moon was inaugurated.”

Interest is focusing on the South Korea-Japan summit. Abe is the only leader of the four powers surrounding the Korean Peninsula (the US, China, Japan and Russia) to be attending. Abe recently announced that he would be meeting with Moon to call for the “faithful implementation of the comfort women agreement” and for the “strengthening of sanctions against North Korea.”

The Japanese press is reporting that a “South Korea-Japan summit will be held in Pyeongchang on Feb. 9.” The Blue House has declared that it will move forward with a “two track” response that takes a forward-looking approach to areas including the economy and culture even while maintaining that the comfort women issue was not resolved by the Dec. 28 agreement.

Another item of interest is Moon’s meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence. During an interview with Fox News on Jan. 10, Pence said that President Trump’s message is that the US supports its alliances in Northeast Asia, including its alliance with South Korea, and that the US will continue to impose the maximum economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea until it abandons its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, which threaten the US.

Moon is likely to attempt to persuade the US to engage in dialogue with the North. “The only way to peacefully resolve the North Korean nuclear issue is for inter-Korean dialogue to lead to dialogue between the US and the North,” Moon said on Jan. 22. While it appears that a member of Trump’s family will join the US delegation to the Olympics, it has not been decided whether that will be Melania Trump, Donald’s wife and first lady, or Ivanka Trump, his eldest daughter.

A high-ranking delegation from North Korea is also supposed to visit the South. This delegation could potentially be led by Choe Ryong-hae, vice chairman of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) and the second most powerful person in North Korea, or Kim Yo-jong, younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and vice director of the KWP Propaganda and Agitation Department. This brings up the tantalizing possibility of an encounter between the North Korean and US delegations during the Olympics, although the US State Department stated that no meeting with North Korea has been planned.

China will be sending Han Zheng, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the seventh highest official in the party, who will be acting as special envoy for Chinese President Xi Jinping. Since the Chinese capital of Beijing will be hosting the next Winter Olympics, the Blue House is hopeful that some high-ranking official or even Xi himself might make a surprise appearance at the Pyeongchang Olympics’ closing ceremony.

South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has gone into overdrive with preparations to welcome so many heads of state to South Korea and launched a 150-member protocol task force on Jan. 8. “Each team [in the task force] is responsible for one country, and they’re drawing up and rehearsing plans down to the second,” one Ministry official said.　

By Seong Yeon-cheol and Kim Ji-eun, staff reporters

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