As originally scheduled, President Donald Trump will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12. Currently, the White House officials are working out the logistics of the summit.
According to a report by the Washington Post , the cash-strapped North Korean government has asked the U.S. to cover the cost of the accommodation in Singapore. As per the report, the presidential suite at The Fullerton hotel, a luxurious five-star resort on a secluded island, can cost more than $6,000 a night.
John Hudson, the reporter from the Washington Post, who managed to sneak into a hotel at an island resort, tweeted that Capella Hotel could be one of the destinations that could host President Trump and Kim Jong Un.
Event planners are working day and night to set up the summit. The arrangements are coordinated by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin and Kim’s de facto chief of staff, Kim Chang Son.
The objective of the summit is to negotiate peace treaties and to persuade Kim Jong Un to agree to denuclearization.
While Trump is optimistic about North Korea agreeing to the deal, many in Washington say that the Pyongyang cannot be trusted to give up nuclear weapons.
an update from Singapore: the press was banned from the Capella hotel, where the U.S. delegation is staying, but I managed to get in by going straight to the hotel bar and appearing to be a tourist 1/ pic.twitter.com/cgyLXnwFDO
— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) May 30, 2018
Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press last week, Victor Cha, who served as the National Security Council’s director of Asian affairs during President George W. Bush’s second term, said that it is highly unlikely that North Korea will dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
I spent a couple hours writing this story at the Fullerton hotel, ordering more ice teas and asking the concierge how much a presidential suite costs. Here are some photos of Kim Jong Un’s preferred hotel pic.twitter.com/Pg1VrNjXi4
— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) June 2, 2018
Cha, who is now working for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that North Korea is seeking a peace treaty with the United States because it would legitimize North Korea as a state with nuclear weapons.
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden also remarked that he does not believe North Korea’s claims that it is willing to denuclearize.
However, South Korean President, Moon Jae-In, who acted as the mediator between Trump and Kim Jong Un, said at a press conference last week that the North Korean leader is willing to “end a history of war and confrontation” on the peninsula. According to President Moon, one of the biggest challenges to holding the summit is the lack of trust between North Korea and the U.S. These two countries have viewed each other as threats since the end of the Korean War in 1953, he said at the press conference last Sunday.
According to a report by New York Times , President Trump said that discussions about holding the summit meeting were “going on very well” and that there was “a lot of goodwill” between the parties.