Secluded resort chosen for Trump-Kim talks
Nearly 3,000 journalists will cover the highly-anticipated summit
Preparations have reached full swing as the White House confirmed on Tuesday that the highly-anticipated summit between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will take place at a hotel on the Singaporean island of Sentosa.
“The venue for the Singapore summit between @POTUS (president of the United States) and Leader Kim Jong -un will be the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island. We thank our great Singaporean hosts for their hospitality,” the White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted on Tuesday.
The historic summit, scheduled to take place on June 12, will be the first meeting between a DPRK top leader and a sitting US president.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that plans were “moving along very nicely”.
“A lot of relationships being built, a lot of negotiations going on before the trip,” he told reporters, adding, “it’s very important — it’ll be a very important couple of days”.
The Capella Hotel is a fivestar hotel located in one of the 63 islands that make up Singapore.
The hotel is known for luxury amenities, impeccable service and, above all, privacy for business and leisure. Two of the hotel’s buildings were built in the 1880s for British officers based on the island.
The BBC reported that the location of Sentosa, just off the mainland, makes it an ideal venue for the meeting as access to the island can easily be secured — there’s just a cable car, a monorail, a pedestrian causeway and a vehicle tunnel.
Located a quarter-mile off the coast of the city-state, Sentosa is famous for its highend beach hotels, golf courses and amusement parks. A US advance team was spotted on the island last week meeting with DPRK officials in preparation for the summit, according to the Strait Times.
On Tuesday evening, workers were painting the facade, extra security was in place and red carpets were being rolled out at the hotel’s two entrances.
Meanwhile, 3,000 journalists are expected to cover the summit and will work from the F1 Pit Building located in downtown Singapore.
Trump is expected to stay at the Shangri-La Hotel, which is near a major shopping district and less secluded than the Sentosa venue.
Trump said last week he expected an eventual “very positive result” with Kim but dampened expectations for a breakthrough in Singapore, saying it could take several meetings to reach an agreement.
One thing that could come out of the summit is a deal formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War, Trump said.
Wang Sheng, a professor in international politics from Jilin University, said the recent weeks of fast-moving diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington has laid a foundation for a pragmatic summit.
The US side is clear on the issue of resolving the nuclear threats and denuclearizing the peninsula, Wang said, adding that the DPRK is also determined to get rid of the sanctions imposed by the international community, improve relations between the DPRK and the ROK, and develop its domestic economic.
“Both of them have clear goals, and it will give them a basis for taking practical actions in the upcoming talks,” the professor said.
AP contributed to this story.