In front of 35,000 spectators, the South Korean president Moon Jae-in shook hands with Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The eagerly awaited Winter Olympics opened today in Pyeongchang with diplomacy choreographed as carefully as the opening ceremony fireworks.
The opening ceremony included a parade of giant animals including phoenixes, a cow, a catfish and a white tiger, one of the symbols of the Games. The animals were moved around by hundreds of performers and dancers. Female musicians dressed in maroon hanbok, or traditional Korean long skirts, played drums and an orchestra played bamboo flutes.
President Moon, donning a quilted white winter coat, and Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, led foreign dignitaries into the VIP gallery. Mike Pence, the US vice-president, was among the dignitaries. He sat next to Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister.
Shortly before the opening ceremony, more than a hundred North Korean cheerleaders, cheered a group of their countrymen who put on a taekwondo martial arts display.
