This article from CNN sounds like another attempt to create tension between President Trump and John Kelly.  It is pretty clear that there are people in the White House that do not like the order Kelly has brought and accusing him of taking shots at Ivanka Trump could be attempt to get the President to remove him:

The decision to send her to South Korea did not sit well with some senior officials in the West Wing, two people familiar with the situation told CNN. The nuclear threat from North Korea and the tensions already boiling across the Korean Peninsula made any US delegation far more than ceremonial.

Kelly was not initially enthusiastic about her South Korea trip, a person close to President Donald Trump said, largely because the visit to the Korean Peninsula was far more than a typical Olympic closing ceremony.

“This isn’t like going to Italy. The stakes are far higher and more complex,” a person close to the President said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive subject of the Trump family.

The concerns of Kelly and others about Ms. Trump — who has little experience in government or diplomacy, and hasn’t played a role in discussions about North Korea — were aired in private, according to people familiar with the matter. Kelly was advised by those closest to him that it would be a losing battle to oppose Ivanka as the delegation’s leader.  [CNN]

From the old Soviet Union to today’s Russian Federation, some bad habits have proven difficult to break. Here is… https://t.co/HW4Rl7hzX5

— tomcoyner (@tomcoyner) February 24, 2018

Members from the conservative Liberty Korea Party, including LKP leader Hong Joon-pyo (4th from L, front row), hold a rally to criticize a visit by Kim Yong-chol, the chief of the eight-member North Korean delegation, at Cheonggye Plaza in Seoul on Feb. 26, 2018. Kim is an alleged mastermind of a 2010 North Korean torpedo attack on the South Korean corvette Cheonan that killed 46 sailors. (Yonhap)

Via a reader tip come this article that explains how South Korean protesters tried to block the bridge taking the North Korean delegation back to North Korea:

Protesters attempted to block vehicles carrying a controversial North Korean delegation to the closing ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games as they crossed the Demilitarised Zone into South Korea on Sunday morning.

Around 100 conservative politicians and activists staged a sit-in demonstration at the Tongil Bridge, according to local broadcaster YTN, accusing the delegation’s leader of being behind a deadly 2010 attack on a South Korean warship.

South Korean authorities deployed more than 2.500 police officers to control the protests. To avoid a clash, the motorcade took an alternative route via Jeonjin bridge, which is a military crossing, according to the Chosun Ilbo.  [The Times]

You can read more at the link, but I hope General Brooks gets on the phone and asks President Moon that if he can open a road for the murderer of 46 ROK sailors, if he can also open the road to the THAAD site?

It is pretty clear that the Kim regime sent Kim Yong-chol as part of the South Korean delegation to rub the Cheonan attack in the face of South Korea’s conservatives:

Political parties collided Monday over a controversial visit to Seoul by a North Korean official who is accused of masterminding deadly military attacks in 2010.

The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) staged a massive rally in central Seoul berating the liberal government for embracing Kim Yong-chol as the chief of the North’s delegation to the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics despite his alleged role in the two attacks.

Kim, a vice chairman of the Central Committee of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, has been accused of leading the torpedo attack on the South Korean warship Cheonan and the bombardment of the border island of Yeonpyeong. The attacks killed a total of 50 South Koreans.

“We will fight until the end against the Moon Jae-in government that has pressed ahead with its decision to allow the visit by Kim Yong-chol despite public concerns and objections,” Kim Sung-tae, the LKP floor leader, said during the rally.

“The raison d’etre of our party is to protect the free democracy system here,” he added.

Describing Kim as a “murderer” and “war criminal,” conservatives here had called for the cancellation of Kim’s three-day visit to the South.

They argue that the visit by Kim — who is under a set of local and international sanctions — will help the North’s “deceptive peace offensive” to weaken the current sanctions regime, sow discord among South Koreans and drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but this would be like a US President giving the red carpet treatment to the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing.  Instead the US gave him Gitmo.  That is the treatment Kim Yong-chol deserves, not VIP treatment at the Walker Hill Hotel.

I was wondering as well if the North Koreans staying at the Walker Hill Hotel had some kind of symbolic meaning to it, but apparently is was all about security:

North Korea again chose Seoul’s Walkerhill Hotel for its high-level delegation’s lodgings during the delegates’ three-day visit. The North Korean leader’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, and other delegates stayed there three weeks ago.

A question then arises: why does the North prefer the hotel out of numerous luxury five-star hotels in Seoul?

An irony lies in the hotel’s name. It was named after U.S. Army general Walton Harris Walker, who died in an unfortunate car accident during the 1950-53 Korean War. Walker was credited with crushing North Korean troops in many battles, paving the way for the ultimate victory of the combined forces of South Korea and the United Nations.

Experts cite security as the first and foremost reason.

Unlike other luxury hotels in central Seoul with many access routes, Walkerhill is surrounded by Mount Acha and linked with only a handful of narrow roads.

For that reason, Walkerhill was a favorite venue for secret inter-Korean meetings in the 1980s and ’90s.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Where are his sources? And did he say this as head of PACOM or as the new US Ambassador to Australia? Does his Japanese roots influence his hardline stance? The Times: “[Harris] said it was crucial that the United States “bring Kim Jong-un to his senses, not his knees.”’ https://t.co/2p25i357xs

— Christine Ahn (@christineahn) February 19, 2018

South Korea’s “Garlic Girls” look like they will get a chance to cash in on their Winter Olympic fame by endorsing vacuum cleaners:

As curling’s growing popularity in the nation is on rise, “Team Kim” (because all five players’ last names are Kim), or the “garlic girls” (because of Uiseong’s specialty crop), are considered the top choice for endorsements for certain manufacturers. The way they sweep the ice, the way they control the stones, they could make perfect commercials _ thought vacuum cleaner makers.

On South Korean electronic appliance manufacturers, from global brands such as Samsung and LG to local competitors like Dayou Winia, Yujin Robot and Dyson, the curling team has made a strong impression. Following the PyeongChang Olympics where the athletes will leave a huge footprint, commercial endorsements featuring them can potentially create a strong marketing effect for whoever hires them.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

The North Koreans are likely offering to hold talks now to get what they can get out of negotiations and then set conditions for their next provocation cycle:

A senior North Korean official said Monday that the reclusive state is willing to hold talks with the United States, noting the door for dialogue between the two countries remains open, according to an official from Seoul’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

The remarks from Kim Yong-chol, the North’s point man on South Korea, came in a meeting with Chung Eui-yong, chief of South Korea’s National Security Council and the top security advisor to President Moon Jae-in.

“Kim said the door remains open for dialogue with the United States. He said the North has also repeatedly expressed such a stance,” a ranking Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters, while speaking on condition of anonymity.

Kim’s remarks came one day after he told the South Korean president in a meeting that the North has enough willingness to hold bilateral talks with the United States.

He, however, attached no conditions for the talks, according to the presidential official.

The U.S. seemed to remain cautious, with White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders saying Washington will first see if Kim’s remarks represented the North’s first step toward denuclearization.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime has no intention of denuclearizing which means the talks will likely go no where.  However, before the talks go no where the Kim regime will try to get concessions out of the ROK.  The Moon administration is already floating the idea of suspending joint military exercises and economic aid for them suspending their nuclear and missile programs:

Moon has promoted a two-step roadmap to end the security crisis prompted by the North’s nuclear threats. According to his proposed first step, the North must place a moratorium on its nuclear and missile tests, freeze any further development of the technologies and join denuclearization negotiations. In return, the international community was to offer corresponding compensations. The second step would be actual nuclear dismantlement.

Moon, however, never made clear what Seoul and Washington would offer to Pyongyang in return for the first step, a freeze. Suspending or downsizing joint military exercises by South Korea and the United States has been discussed as a possible option, as well as an economic assistance package for the impoverished economy of the North.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

So basically the Kim regime gets significant concessions for doing nothing.  The economic assistance will likely include the reopening the Kaesong Industrial Complex, the restarting of Mt. Kumgang tours, and the opening of the Masik Ski Resort to tourism.  This would essentially shred all the sanctions that the US has been trying to leverage against the ROK.  That is why we will likely see a renewed push for a “freeze deal” in the coming weeks and months.

After the Kim regime gets all they can out of talks they will then restart their nuclear and missile programs and blame “US hostility” or some other made up reason.  Their leftist supporters will of course all fall in line with the narrative.  We have seen this all play out before.  Any freeze deal they sign the Kim regime will find a way to cheat on it.  I fully expect they will continue with short and intermediate range ballistic missile testing claiming this is okay because they are not ICBMs.  I suspect they will use space launches to test their ICBM technology and claim it is for peaceful purposes.  They have done this before.

They will also likely continue efforts to miniaturize their nuclear technology to put on ICBM warheads.  Without inspections this will be easy for them to conceal.  Even if they get called out for cheating they will just deny it and their apologists will come out in force to support them.  Supporters of past nuclear deals kept claiming that North Korea was in compliance despite clear evidence they were not.

It will be interesting to see which direction the Trump administration wants to go.  If they want to kick this can down the road to deal with later, the freeze deal is a way to do it.