Trump-Kim Singapore summit venue is set
The US and North Korea have settled on a venue for the summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday.
Trump and Kim will meet for the first time at the Capella Hotel on Singapore's Sentosa Island on June 12, Sanders announced Tuesday via Twitter.
UPDATE: The venue for the Singapore summit between @POTUS and Leader Kim Jong Un will be the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island. We thank our great Singaporean hosts for their hospitality.— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) June 5, 2018
"We thank our great Singaporean hosts for their hospitality," Sanders tweeted.
Delegations
from the US and North Korea met four times last week at the Capella
Hotel to hash out the logistics of the summit, with setting an
appropriate venue for the summit at the top of the agenda.
Sanders said Monday the meeting will take place at 9 a.m. local time on June 12 (9 p.m. ET on June 11).
The exterior of the Capella Hotel in Singapore. |
The red-shingled, colonial-style Capella
is a five-star hotel on Sentosa Island, which boasts several resorts,
hotels, two golf courses and a theme park.
US
and North Korean officials considered several other hotels in Singapore
as potential locations for the summit, which will be the first meeting
between a US and North Korean leader.
Peacocks roam freely around the property, which features at least one pool. |
A top option from the beginning had been
the Shangri-La hotel, a massive structure near Orchard Road that could
be heavily secured while also providing an ornate setting. The hotel
hosted a historic summit meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping
and Taiwanese leader Ma Ying-jeou in 2015.
US
officials, led by Joe Hagin, the deputy White House chief of staff for
operations, negotiated with a North Korean delegation last week to
determine the location and time for the summit. Security had been a
chief concern for the North Koreans during the discussions, sources told
CNN.
The meetings often proceeded at a
painstaking pace. North Korean officials are "sensitive to being
dictated to," one source close to the talks said, and the Hagin-led team
has taken pains to present ideas for the summit in a collaborative way.
"Even if you're leading a horse to water, you have to do it in a way that is collaborative," the source said.
The Capella is on the island resort of Sentosa, which is Malay for "peace and tranquility." |
North Korean officials in Singapore also needed to get sign-off on
almost every detail with their superiors in Pyongyang, leading to one-
or two-day intervals before they could reach an agreement on even minor
logistical details, the source said.
CNN
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