UNGA President to attend opening ceremony of Pyeongchang Winter Games

Seoul [South Korea], Feb 6 (ANI): United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) President Miroslav Lajcak will visit South Korea on Wednesday to attend the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics that will be held on February 9, South Korean foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Lajcak who also serves as the Slovakian Foreign Minister will stay in South Korea for five days.

The UNGA President will call on the South Korean President Moon Jae-in, South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon. Besides, he will meet other officials to discuss issues related to the

Korean Peninsula, the Yonhap news agency reported.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' will also attend the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and will meet with South Korean high officials to press for the "denuclearisation" of the Korean Peninsula.

In November last year, Lajcak presided over the UNGA session in New York, where at least 157 countries had adopted the Olympic Truce through a consensus for the Pyeongchang Winter Games.

This comes after North Korean ceremonial leader Kim Yong-nam will arrive at Pyeongchang for attending the Winter Olympics and will head a 22-member delegation, which included three delegates and 18 supportive staffers.

The South Korean presidential office announced that President Moon is proposing to hold a one-on-one meeting with Yong-nam.

Yong-nam is the President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea.

Earlier in January, North and South Korea agreed to field a joint women's ice hockey team and also march together under a unified Korea flag at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

North Korea will send 24 officials, including coaches, alongside the 22 athletes in three sports and five disciplines.

The two sides had met at the border village of Panmunjom, located along the heavily guarded Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) for working-level and military talks.

The Winter Olympics will take place from February 8 to 25. The Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics will be held between March 8 to 18.

The development between the two countries has brought some ease into their strained relations. (ANI)