Mike Pence, the US vice president, will arrive in South Korea for the opening of the Winter Olympic Games accompanied by Fred Warmbier, the father of the American student who died in June after being released from a North Korean prison.

Mr Warmbier is travelling as a guest of the vice president, and his presence is being seen as a signal to Pyongyang that Washington has no intention of easing the pressure on the regime of Kim Jong-un over its human rights record.

Speaking in Pittsburgh on Friday, Mr Pence also made it clear that US retains its policy of applying the maximum international pressure in order to force North Korea to halt its development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Mr Pence told reporters that he would use his trip to South Korea to make it clear that “all options are on the table” to deal with the threat posed by North Korea.

“We will continue to bring all economic and diplomatic pressure to bear until North Korea permanently abandons its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes once and for all,” he said.