Who pays summit bill for N. Korea?

Kim Jong Un can afford it, but some think the U.S. will find a way to pay for a hotel

TOKYO — When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump hold their summit at an exclusive venue in Singapore, one of the priciest destinations in Asia, they will no doubt run up quite a bill. And if past precedent is any indication, expect Pyongyang to pay as little of it as possible.

Speculation over how North Korea will handle the costs for Kim’s June 12 meeting with Trump has taken off after a Washington Post report cited two anonymous U.S. officials suggesting the Trump administration has been “seeking a discreet way” to help pay Kim’s hotel bill.

The report suggested host nation Singapore might take care of it.

But what exactly needs to be paid for isn’t yet clear.

Sure, there are the costs of summit venue and the hotels, with one reported option, the Fullerton, coming with a $6,000-a-night price tag for its presidential suite. But that would hardly break the North Korean bank.

While Kim could decide to stay the night, or maybe even two, he might also be in a hurry to get back home, in which case the North wouldn’t need a room so much as a base camp. North Korea has an embassy in Singapore, but that likely wouldn’t be good enough to meet the logistical and security demands of a full-on summit.

The North may want to send a large delegation to accompany Kim and provide its own security. If there are any feelers going out about cost-sharing, that’s a likely topic. But it would be more of a sweetener than a necessity.

Whatever the venue, it’s debatable why an outside party would need to pay.

North Korea’s government, which is no stranger to hosting lavish events like military parades and party congresses of its own, has ample funds to cover important meetings for Kim.

While highly speculative — Kim is even more averse to divulging details about his personal wealth than Trump — the North Korean leader is believed by some foreign experts to be worth well over $1 billion and have access to billions more dollar thanks to the full backing of his country.

But as history has shown, summits with the Kim family don’t come cheap.

Seoul reportedly spent somewhere in the range of $5 million to cover the costs of costs of President Moon Jae-in’s first summit with Kim in April — a daylong affair held in publicly owned buildings on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone.