End Game

North Korea Sends Man Blamed for Deadly Ship Sinking to Olympic Closing Ceremony

Sinking killed 46 South Korean sailors in 2010.

North Korea’s propaganda campaign has been the most intriguing sideshow at this year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang—and it looks like it’s going to continue all the way to the Closing Ceremony. The country is sending another senior-level delegation to the Olympic finale on Sunday, including Kim Yong Chol, who was chief of the North’s top military intelligence body when it was blamed for the 2010 sinking of a South Korean navy ship, killing 46 sailors. Kim Yong Chol is blacklisted by the U.S. and South Korea, but South Korean officials said they would accept his entry for the good of the Games and the warming relations between the two countries. The North Korean delegation could potentially set up another tricky diplomatic situation for the U.S., which is sending a contingent led by Ivanka Trump and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Earlier in the Games, North Korea canceled a planned meeting between its Opening Ceremony delegation—which included Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong—and Vice President Mike Pence.