GANGNEUNG, South Korea—Pyongyang’s plan to have an army general tied to two attacks on South Korean forces lead North Korea’s delegation to the Winter Olympics’ closing ceremonies this weekend presents a diplomatic quandary for U.S. presidential adviser Ivanka Trump, who is also set to attend.
The potential for an encounter between the two comes weeks after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence pointedly ignored North Korean envoys, including the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, at the opening of the Games in the South Korean ski resort of Pyeongchang.
The U.S. later said a meeting between Mr. Pence and the North Koreans had been planned, but that Pyongyang canceled at the last minute.
The U.S. delegation this weekend will need to decide how to treat the presence of the general, Kim Yong Chol, on whom Seoul has imposed sanctions for his alleged role in the 2010 sinking of a South Korean warship, which killed 46 sailors, and the bombardment of a South Korean island the same year.
Seoul’s Ministry of Unification on Thursday said it had agreed to Gen. Kim’s visit in order to further its goals of improving inter-Korean relations and pursuing denuclearization.
Pyongyang said it would send Gen. Kim hours after the White House said it would send Ms. Trump, the daughter of President Donald Trump, to Pyeongchang. In addition to Ms. Trump, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Republican Sen. James Risch of Idaho are also set to attend.
White House officials said Ms. Trump has no plans to interact with any North Korean officials, and there were no private negotiations under way to arrange a meeting during her three-day visit. She also won’t meet with any North Korean defectors, as Mr. Pence did.
Ms. Trump has been briefed on Korean politics, and is prepared to discuss the president’s strategy of maximum pressure on North Korea. But her plans were to attend the closing ceremonies, cheer on U.S. athletes and reaffirm the U.S.-South Korea alliance, officials said.
Ms. Trump also is scheduled to dine with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the Blue House on Friday and will spend the remainder of weekend watching the Games, the officials said. The plan to have Ms. Trump attend the Games came out of conversations between Messrs. Moon and Trump.
By dispatching Gen. Kim to South Korea now, analysts in the South said, North Korea may be seeking to send a tough warning to the U.S. and South Korea that the allies’ plans for military exercises after the Games would ratchet up tensions on the peninsula.
The U.S. and South Korea agreed to postpone the exercises until after the Paralympics end on March 18, but have otherwise affirmed their intention to proceed with them as usual.
“They want to challenge the South Korean military and the U.S.-South Korea alliance by sending Kim Yong Chol south,” said Go Myung-hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. “If North Korea wanted a photo op with Ivanka, they would have sent somebody else.”
Gen. Kim, a top official in North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, is widely believed to play a key role in the North’s intelligence apparatus.
South Korea has accused Gen. Kim, who isn’t related to the North Korean leader, of masterminding the torpedoing of the Cheonan, a South Korean frigate, and ordering the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, which killed four people.
Gen. Kim’s hard-line resume presents a contrast to Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of the North Korean leader, who largely sought to project a softer face during her surprise last-minute trip to the South. Ms. Kim is believed to be a senior official in North Korea’s Propaganda and Agitation Department.
Unlike with the Opening Ceremony, where South Korean officials appeared to encourage Washington and Pyongyang to engage, officials said only that a meeting between the U.S. and North Korean delegation this time around “looks unlikely.”
Mr. Kim was promoted to lead the North Korean body that oversees relations with the South in early 2016, following the death of his more conciliatory predecessor, who died in a car accident in late 2015.
At the time, Gen. Kim’s ascension was seen as sending a message to the South that Pyongyang wasn’t looking for talks.
Mr. Kim is to be accompanied by Ri Son Gwon, an official who represented the North when the two Koreas met last month at the demilitarized zone dividing the Korean Peninsula. There will also be a six-member support staff, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said.
—Michael C. Bender
in Washington
contributed to this article.
Write to Jonathan Cheng at jonathan.cheng@wsj.com
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