It looks like Kim Jong-un is once again getting a free ride during his visit to Singapore, courtesy of the government of Singapore:
In this June 7, 2018, photo, a man walks past an advertisement board of cartoon caricatures of U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un which are supposed to be the inspiration behind a local dish, the “Trump-Kim Chi Nasi Lemak” at a mall, in Singapore. AP
Most Singaporeans are excited about their country playing host to the historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
But not all are happy about the city-state bearing the cost of the summit slated to be held at the Capella Hotel on Singapore’s resort island of Sentosa, June 12.
Proponents believe that this is a great chance for Singapore to upgrade its international image, so the government and people are taking a strategic approach.
In other words, paying the direct costs for North Korea, such as lodging, transport and dining, can be a monetary loss in the short-term, but successful hosting the summit will bring greater value for the country.
“This kind of opportunity does not come often. I think we can afford to bear the cost and it will help leverage our international status,” said a senior executive at one of the five-star hotels in Singapore on condition of anonymity. [Korea Times]
It looks like the venue for the Trump-Kim summit has finally been locked in:
The Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island in Singapore where U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will hold a summit on June 12. [AP/YONHAP]The Capella Hotel on Singapore’s resort island of Sentosa was named the venue for next week’s historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un by the White House on Wednesday.
The much-anticipated summit is scheduled for 9 a.m. local time on June 12, and the announcement of the venue comes after U.S. and North Korean logistics teams scoured the Southeast Asian city-state last week for an optimal location.
After revealing the time of the meeting on Monday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, tweeted: “UPDATE: The venue for the Singapore summit between @POTUS [the 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.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
I am still wondering who is picking up Kim Jong-un’s hotel bill since the US State Department says they aren’t paying for it:
The U.S. State Department addressed speculation about who is paying for the North Koreans’ stay in Singapore. Heather Nauert, spokesperson of the State Department, on Tuesday said, “The United States government is not paying for the North Korean delegation to stay” in Singapore, adding that it is not “paying for their expenses.”
I am glad to see that the State Department is not giving in to the demands to pay for Kim’s hotel bill. I wonder if the South Koreans will end up getting stuck with Kim’s hotel bill?
It is not a matter of whether the DPRK can afford the summit. It is really a test of how openly the DPRK can snooker whomever. It’s a clever tactic to test its opponents’ weaknesses before even sitting down. Let the eye blinking begin! https://t.co/9srzrkYsoH
Here is the latest development on the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore:
U.S. President Donald Trump, right, shows an envelope containing a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. Kim Yong-chol, left, vice chairman of the North Korean Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, delivered the envelope to Trump in person. [YONHAP]President Moon Jae-in will join North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore next week to declare an end to the Korean War, which has technically been running for 68 years, according to a diplomatic source.
“Preparations are already underway for President Moon to declare a formal end to the Korean War with the two leaders on June 12, the date of the North-U.S. summit, or the next day on the 13th,” said the source, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
“Singapore has already begun preparations to host President Moon [for a trilateral meeting].”
If realized, the three leaders standing together to declare the Korean War’s end will certainly be a charged symbolic moment, but it will not have legal force. (…………)
Expectations of a declaration to end the Korean War arose after Trump’s remarks early Saturday, when he said signing of a statement to end it would be “very important,” after a meeting with Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the North Korean Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, who delivered a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“We talked about ending the war,” Trump said on the south lawn after Kim Yong-chol left the White House. “And you know, this war has been going on – it’s got to be the longest war – almost 70 years, right? And there is a possibility of something like that.
“Can you believe that we’re talking about the ending of the Korean War?” he continued. “You’re talking about 70 years.”
He said the declaration will be “more of a signing of a document,” and “very important.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read much more at the link, but is it just me or does it seem like President Moon was very eager to once again get the spotlight on him by forcing his way into this summit?
Anyway the so called into the Korean War won’t really be an end because the United Nations Armistice Command and China will also have to agree to the end of the Korean War to make it official. This will allow President Trump to easily back out on this declaration at a later date if the Kim regime does not live up to whatever commitments they are prepared to make.
But the US would need to circumvent its own sanctions against the rogue nation.
The peace talks are set for The Fullerton Hotel Singapore on June 12.
A rack rate room goes for $415 that night but a super-luxurious suite, befitting a world leader, could go for as much as $6,000, the newspaper said.
The hermit kingdom reportedly requires that all of Kim’s lodging bills are picked up by another country.
The US is open to paying for Kim. But first, Trump’s team would have to get around its own economic sanctions against North Korea — by obtaining a waiver from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. [NY Post]
You can read more at the link, but it is amazing how shameless the Kim regime is about having other people pick up their tabs. They kind of remind me of this woman who recently made headlines in New York City.
The odds are that he will fly his Russian made Il-62M aircraft to Singapore despite his plane having never flown that far before:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un gets on his official airplane Chammae-1 after his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Dalian in China’s Liaoning Province on May 7-8. (Korea Central News Agency
How will North Korean leader Kim Jong-un travel the 4,700km to Singapore, where the North Korea-US summit will be taking place on June 12? Since a train journey from North Korea to Singapore is out of the question, attention is focusing on Kim’s official airplane, Chammae-1 (meaning goshawk, North Korea’s national bird).On May 7, Kim flew Chammae-1 to Dalian in China’s Liaoning Province to hold his second summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Pyongyang and Dalian are about 360km apart in a direct line. Chammae-1, a souped-up IL-62M of Soviet manufacture, is equipped with four engines, which gives it a maximum flight distance of 9,000-10,000km. These specifications make it fully capable of reaching Singapore, which is about 4,700km away from Pyongyang.But safety concerns have also been raised since Kim’s jet is old and has never attempted a long flight before. The IL-62M, an upgraded version of the IL-62 model that was developed in 1967, entered production in 1975 and was discontinued in 1995.“[Chammae-1] is presumed to have been manufactured in 1985, and provided that it’s in good repair, it will have no problem flying to Singapore. But since it has no experience with long-distance flight and may not have been serviced properly, it probably presents a dilemma [for North Korea],” said a source in the South Korean government.
In Nov. 2014, Choe Ryong-hae, vice chairman of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP), was reportedly on a flight to Russia as a special envoy for Kim Jong-un when a problem with his aircraft forced him to return to Pyongyang and restart his journey. The aircraft that Choe and his party were on was apparently also an IL-62. This is leading to speculation that Kim may have a stopover in China or borrow a large charter plane from China. [Hankyoreh]
You can read more at the link, but I seriously doubt Kim Jong-un would take a charter plane from China to Singapore. It would be too embarrassing in my opinion for him to show up in Singapore not flying in a state sponsored aircraft.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will take place in Singapore June 12.
“The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th,” Trump tweeted. “We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!”
Trump’s tweet came just hours after three American citizens were brought home from imprisonment in the communist country.
Their release cleared a major obstacle for the upcoming meeting, which will be the first between sitting leaders of the two countries.
Trump and Kim are expected to discuss the dismantlement of the regime’s nuclear weapons program.
Trump’s aim is the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea. Kim has repeatedly expressed his commitment to denuclearization, but it’s unclear on what terms. [Yonhap]
I wonder how many Americans had to look on a map after hearing this news to figure out where Singapore is?
It seems we can’t go more than a few months without a missing Malaysian linked airplane making headlines:
South Korea’s foreign ministry said Sunday that at least three South Koreans were on board an AirAsia plane that went missing en route from Indonesia to Singapore.
The ministry said that a South Korean man and a woman in their 30s, and an infant were among the 162 passengers and crew members on AirAsia’s flight QZ8501 that lost contact with Jakarta’s air traffic control after takeoff early Sunday.
The foreign ministry said it convened an emergency meeting to address the issue, saying that it will monitor progress in the search operations for the missing plane.
“The Seoul government plans to closely watch related authorities’ search operations and will study various options, including the dispatch of a response team,” Lee Jeong-gwan, ambassador for overseas Koreans and consular affairs, said at the opening of the meeting. [Yonhap]
