Thread: US May Have to Foot Kim Jong Un's Hotel Bill for Singapore Summit: Report

US May Have to Foot Kim Jong Un's Hotel Bill for Singapore Summit: Report

The June 12 summit between the US and North Korea has seen its fair share of controversy already when US president Donald Trump called it off a week ago only to make a U-turn later.

News18.comUpdated:June 2, 2018, 1:26 PM IST

The iconic Fullerton hotel in the heart of Singapore, is the site of an odd yet urgent logistical issue ahead of the Trump-Kim summit, according to a news report.

The United States is trying to figure a way to pay for North Korean delegation's stay without offending the nation, the Washington Post reported.

The June 12 summit between the US and North Korea has seen its fair share of controversy already when US president Donald Trump called it off a week ago only to make a U-turn later.

Fullerton is the five-star star hotel preferred by Kim Jong Un, and the nation requires another country to cover its costs whenever a delegation visits foreign shores, said the Post.

The US is on board with footing this bill — the presidential suite at the Fullerton costs $6000 a night — yet must do so without embarrassing or offending Pyongyang. An option is to ask Singapore to pay the bill. The Post report does not say how the city-state playing host to the summit might react.

It's not just Pyongyang's reaction the US staff planning the meeting is worried about. Any request to pay for North Korea needs written waivers from its own Department of Treasury and from the United Nations, given the sanctions the West has imposed on the DPRK. Any questions about the waivers could also go down ill with Pyongyang.

Lodgings are one problem. North Korea's Soviet-era plane may not make the 3000 mile trip to Singapore, said the report. If it needs to land in China, the summit planners will have to come up with a story for that, against to not embarrass the country.

https://www.news18.com/news/world/us...t-1766881.html

The U.S. is trying to find a discreet way to pay for Kim Jong Un’s hotel during the summit

by John Hudson June 1 at 6:46 PM Email the author

SINGAPORE — At an island resort off the coast of Singapore, U.S. event planners are working day and night with their North Korean counterparts to set up a summit designed to bring an end to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program.

But a particularly awkward logistical issue remains unresolved, according to two people familiar with the talks. Who’s going to pay for Kim Jong Un’s hotel stay?

The prideful but cash-poor pariah state requires that a foreign country foot the bill at its preferred lodging: the Fullerton, a magnificent neoclassical hotel near the mouth of the Singapore River, where just one presidential suite costs more than $6,000 per night.

The mundane but diplomatically fraught billing issue is just one of numerous logistical concerns being hammered out between two teams led by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin and Kim’s de facto chief of staff, Kim Chang Son, as they strive toward a June 12 meeting.

After weeks of uncertainty, President Trump called off the summit last week, blaming “open hostility” from North Korea. But a flurry of diplomacy across two continents got the meeting back on track, and Trump announced Friday that he will attend as initially planned.

When it comes to paying for lodging at North Korea’s preferred five-star luxury hotel, the United States is open to covering the costs, the two people said, but it’s mindful that Pyongyang may view a U.S. payment as insulting. As a result, U.S. planners are considering asking the host country of Singapore to pay for the North Korean delegation’s bill.

President Trump has made many high-profile pardons, and is considering more. Here's what his pardoning strategy says about his view of the legal system. (Jenny Starrs /The Washington Post)

“It is an ironic and telling deviation from North Korea’s insistence on being treated on an ‘equal footing,’ ” said Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Still, the heavily sanctioned and isolated regime has a long history of making bold monetary demands.

During the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea set aside $2.6 million to cover travel accommodations for a North Korean cheering squad, an art troupe and other members of the visiting delegation.

At the same Games, the International Olympic Committee paid for 22 North Korean athletes to travel to the event.

The Fullerton, a magnificent neoclassical hotel in the central business district, is the preferred lodging of the North Korean officials staying in Singapore. (John Hudson/TWP)

In 2014, when then-U.S. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. visited North Korea to retrieve two prisoners, his North Korean hosts served him an “elaborate 12-course Korean meal,” the veteran intelligence official said, but then insisted that he pay for it.

“These norms were laid in the early 2000s, when Seoul’s so-called ‘sunshine policy’ took off,” said Sung-Yoon Lee, an expert on Korea at Tufts University, referring to a policy of rapprochement associated with former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung. “North Korea can build nukes and ICBMs, but claim they are too poor to pay for foreign travel costs.”

Any payment for North Korea’s accommodations would run afoul of Treasury Department sanctions, said Elizabeth Rosenberg, a former Treasury official. The transaction would require the Office of Foreign Assets Control to “temporarily suspend the applicability of sanctions” through a waiver, she said.

The United States is expected to request these waivers from the United Nations and Treasury for a range of payments associated with North Korea’s travel, but a long list of exemptions could draw scrutiny.

“There are legitimate mechanisms built in for exemptions depending on the circumstance, but this could run into public and political criticism and send the wrong message to North Korea,” said Duyeon Kim, a visiting fellow at the Korean Peninsula Future Forum, a nonpartisan think tank in Seoul.

Figuring out how to pay Pyongyang’s hotel tab won’t be the only unusual planning obstacle that comes with hosting an event with the isolated regime. The country’s outdated and underused Soviet-era aircraft may require a landing in China because of concerns it won’t make the 3,000-mile trip — a visit that would probably require a plausible cover story to avoid embarrassment. Alternatively, the North Koreans might travel in a plane provided by another country.

Many of those issues have been secondary to the major decision of selecting a venue space for the two leaders to meet. For that, the two sides are believed to have settled on the Capella hotel on the resort island of Sentosa, the people familiar with the talks said. Situated off Singapore’s southeast coast, the hotel boasts a mix of colonial-style buildings and curvy modern edifices.

On Wednesday, a Washington Post reporter witnessed construction crews erecting tents and other facilities required for a large event. The reporter was later instructed to leave the premises after interacting with the U.S. planning delegation, which is staying at the resort. The resort’s relative seclusion appealed to security-conscious U.S. and North Korean officials.

During Trump’s visit to Singapore, he is expected to stay at the Shangri-La, a 747-room hotel that is accustomed to high-security events. It hosts the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, a security conference that attracts dozens of ministers of defense and state.

White House and State Department officials repeatedly declined to comment on the advance team planning, keeping those discussions more opaque than the substance of the negotiations.

Rexon Ryu, a former White House official who dealt with the North Korea nuclear issue, said the North Korean side in particular has an interest in keeping those discussions quiet.

“These talks go to the question of security, and if anything, that’s probably most immediately paramount to Kim,” he said. “I think for many folks on the North Korean side, this is more important than the content of the negotiations.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.796059be0e23

They should have held the summit in Korea on the DMZ like Trump wanted and avoided all this crap and expense. It's probably the safest place in the world right now anyway. Mr. President, always go with your gut, you're the smartest man in the room.

NK can afford nukes and weapons but not hotel bill?

He can pay his own bill.

It's the sanctions. It's illegal for the hotel in Singapore to rent them the room under the sanctions. I don't think Singapore will pay for it, so South Korea will need to figure something out and take care of it. They can work it out between them later after the peace treaty is signed. Who paid for Kim Jong Chol's trip and rooms and expense when he came here?

It's possible this story is a lie by the Washington Post, too. Their sources were "two people familiar with the talks." This was not White House, State Department or Trump officials. It sounds like something Brennan and Clapper would make up and circulate to try and undermine the talks.

Now we know why Kim Jong Un never travels outside NK.

Exactly. But the White House announced this morning that this isn't a true story and the United States will not be paying for their travel. SHAME ON THE WASHINGTON POST!!!

Cavuto had his crew check and found hotels that could accommodate Kim Jong Un for about $79 per day. Someone on his program noted that the Singapore hotel apparently jacked up their rates especially for Kim Jong Un, because they have been burned by his regime.

Maybe Fox will send Cavuto over there to cover the summit and he can stay in the $79 room.

Originally Posted by Judy

Maybe Fox will send Cavuto over there to cover the summit and he can stay in the $79 room.

I'm sure he could afford the $6000 per day on his own!