NK's high-level delegation set to arrive in S. Korea for Olympics' closing ceremonyNorth Korea's high-level delegation led by a top official accused of having masterminded the 2010 sinking of a South Korean warship is set to arrive in the South Sunday to attend the PyeongChang Winter Olympics' closing ceremony.

Kim Yong-chol, a key party official handling inter-Korean affairs, will cross the inter-Korean border later in the day, heading an eight-member delegation for a three-day trip to South Korea.

The 72-year-old Kim is standing at the center of a controversy as he is suspected of having orchestrated the North's torpedoing of the Cheonan corvette in March 2010. The naval attack left 46 South Korean sailors aboard dead.

The South Korean government said it has accepted Kim's trip despite negative public sentiment as it believes that the trip will help improve inter-Korean ties and pave the way for dialogue toward peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The recent Olympics-driven rapprochement between the two Koreas came in the wake of tensions that heightened last year, sparked by the North's nuclear and missile tests.

The North's delegation dispatch coincides with a visit by US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka to the South, fanning speculation about a possible meeting between officials from the United States and North Korea on the sidelines of the Olympics.

Ivanka Trump, who serves as an adviser to the president, arrived in Seoul Friday for a four-day stay.

South Korea's presidential office sees a low chance of direct contact between the US and the North on the sidelines of the Olympics.

But still some analysts anticipate a surprise encounter between the rivals this time following an aborted US-North Korea meeting earlier this month in the South on the fringe of the opening ceremony.

North Korea dispatched a high-level delegation that includes its ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam and Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of the North's leader Kim Jong-un, from Feb. 9-11 to attend the Olympics' opening ceremony.

Kim Yo-jong delivered her brother's letter to President Moon Jae-in, which included an invitation to the South's leader to visit Pyongyang at the earliest possible date.

Vice President Mike Pence led the US delegation to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics earlier this month, but there was no meeting between Pence and Kim Yo-jong.

But the US said Wednesday that Pence had planned to secretly meet with the North's delegation at the request of North Korea, but Pyongyang abruptly canceled the planned meeting on Feb. 10.

A flurry of sports diplomacy between the two Koreas began after the North's leader expressed a willingness to send a delegation to the Winter Olympics in his New Year's Day message.

The North's delegation is likely to repeat Kim Jong-un's invitation to the South's president when it meets with President Moon.

Moon hopes that better inter-Korean ties could pave the way for broader dialogue between the US and North Korea over denuclearization. (Yonhap)