US PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s daughter toured the 2018 Winter Olympics on Saturday, the morning after telling South Korea’s president that she will use her visit to the PyeongChang Games to advocate maximum pressure on North Korea to halt its nuclear program.

According to the New York Post, Ivanka Trump, who is one of her father’s close advisers, is leading the US delegation at this weekend’s closing ceremony for the PyeongChang Games.

Ms Trump paid a visit to the American team’s headquarters to meet with Olympians and gave a presidential challenge coin to Garrett Hines, a former US bobsledder and Army reservist, thanking him for his service.

Under cloudy skies, Ms Trump watched her first event Saturday morning — Big Air jump snowboarding and saw American snowboarder Kyle Mack take a silver medal. She sat in the stands with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and US IOC member Angela Ruggiero and watched the event at the Alpensia Ski Jumping Centre.

In PyeongChang on Saturday morning, Ivanka Trump watched snowboarders go on runs at the Big Air jump and saw American snowboarder Kyle Mack take a silver medal.

A smiling Ms Trump, wearing a Team USA hat and red snowsuit, chatted with members of her delegation and South Korea first lady Kim Jung-souk. Also with her was IOC board member and 1998 hockey gold medallist Angela Ruggiero.

After the event ended, Trump spoke with some of the South Korean athletes who were guests of the delegation and posed for selfies.

While the games appear to have paved the way for possible rapprochement between the Koreas, U.S. and North Korean officials have yet to make direct contact. Earlier this week, the U.S. government said Pence had been set to meet North Korean officials during his visit to South Korea, but that the North Korean side cancelled at the last minute.

For now, there are no signs that Ivanka Trump will meet Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party Central Committee, who is to attend the closing ceremony.

The White House has emphasised that the purpose of her visit is to celebrate the achievements of the athletes, noting that she is a winter sports enthusiast herself. She is expected to attend the games on Saturday before Sunday’s closing ceremony.

President Trump tweeted prior to his daughter’s arrival “We cannot have a better, or smarter, person representing our country.”

On Friday, the Trump administration announced sanctions on more than 50 vessels, shipping companies and trade businesses to turn up the pressure on North Korea to denuclearise. US officials said that US President Trump had discussed the action with South Korean President Moon Jae-in ahead of the announcement in Washington.

Shortly after arriving on Friday, Ms Trump said she was in South Korea to celebrate the Olympics and to reaffirm the US commitment to a “maximum pressure campaign to ensure that the Korean Peninsula is denuclearised.”