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U.S. and North Korean officials met in Hanoi to discuss second Trump-Kim summit: South Korean newspaper

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walk after lunch at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore June 12, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

SEOUL (Reuters) – U.S. State Department officials recently met multiple times with North Korean counterparts in Hanoi and discussed planning a second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday.

U.S. officials discussed the schedule for the second Trump-Kim summit while in contact with North Korean officials in the Vietnamese capital city, fuelling speculation that Vietnam could host the event, the Munhwa Ilbo reported, citing unnamed diplomatic sources in Seoul and Washington.

Vietnam has diplomatic relations with both the United States and North Korea, with North Korea maintaining a diplomatic office in Vietnam, and has the symbolic significance of a communist country that has reformed its economy, the newspaper reported.

A spokesperson for the U.S Embassy in Seoul did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

On Sunday, Trump told reporters in Washington that the United States and North Korea are negotiating a location for a second summit.

“It will be announced probably in the not too distant future,” Trump said. They do want to meet and we want to meet and we’ll see what happens.”

While the two sides had a very good dialogue and the American president had communicated with Kim, Trump said sanctions would be enforced until more progress is made.

In a nationally televised New Year address, Kim said he is willing to meet Trump again anytime to achieve their common goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, but warned he may have to take an alternative path if U.S. sanctions and pressure against the country continued.

“I am always ready to sit together with the U.S. president anytime in the future, and will work hard to produce results welcomed by the international community without fail,” Kim said.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Michael Perry)

T-shirts, tacos, and tourism: Singapore businesses cash in on Trump-Kim mania

The Rocket Man Taco and the El Trumpo Taco is pictured at Lucha Loco in Singapore June 8, 2018. REUTERS/Feline Lim

By Dewey Sim and Aradhana Aravindan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – From summit-themed burgers and online scalpers peddling “World Peace” medallions and “Peace Out from Lion City” T-shirts, Singaporeans are cashing in on a historic meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

The buzz around the Trump-Kim summit on Tuesday has stirred Singaporeans’ entrepreneurial spirit, and raised hopes of a tourism dividend long after the summit dust settles.

A bartender presents a pair of Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un cocktails called The Bromance at Hopheads Craft Beer Bar and Bistro in Singapore June 8, 2018. REUTERS/Feline Lim

One person is trying to sell his weekend reservations at the Shangri-La Hotel, mentioned in media as the possible lodging of one of the leaders – at three times the price.

“It was for a personal ‘staycation’, but I reckon that because of the summit, people might actually offer to pay a higher price,” Joel Lin, who is asking for S$1,600 for each of two rooms he has booked, said by telephone.

The Singapore Mint, which this week unveiled a commemorative medallion for the summit, later raised the mintage for the gold and silver medallions after an overwhelming response.

At more than S$1,000 ($750) a piece for the gold version, and more than S$100 for the silver one, the issue could yield upwards of S$5 million if they are all sold.

Scalpers are preparing to sell the medallions they get in an online sale.

An Australian Kim impersonator, who goes by the name Howard X, has also been cashing in but said he got an unpleasant surprise on Friday when he was detained for questioning on arrival back in the country for a second time in two weeks.

He said he was allowed on his way after being told to stay away from summit venues.

A Singapore burger chain, Wolf Burgers, urged the two leaders to #settlethebeef and invited them to try its “Burger for World Peace”, with American sharp cheddar cheese and Korea’s marinated Bulgogi shabu brisket.

Mexican restaurant Lucha Loco is selling “Rocket Man” and “El Trumpo” tacos and guests stand a chance to smash Trump-Kim piñatas.

FILE PHOTO: Special red and blue shots offered at Escobar bar to mark the summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, are displayed on a table in Singapore June 4, 2018. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo

Trump called Kim “little rocket man” last year, when the two were exchanging threats of nuclear war and the prospect of a summit was nothing but a distant dream for even the most optimistic marketing man.

More than 3,000 journalists are due in town, along with delegations and security entourages.

Those who enjoy a tipple might seek out a bar offering cocktails featuring the Korean spirit soju. One bar has named its special summit drink – which mixes beer, tequila, diet Coke and soju – the Bromance.

Singapore, which welcomed a record 17.4 million international visitors last year, is likely to see a bump, albeit small, in retail spending because of the summit.

Every tourist to Singapore spends an average three-and-a-half days and contributes about S$1,500 to overall tourism receipts, said brokerage CGS-CIMB.

Assuming a seven-day stay and about 4,000 people coming for the event, a CGS-CIMB analyst estimated they could spend about S$12 million ($9 million).

That’s a drop in the bucket in the short-term – the Singapore Tourism Board has forecast tourism receipts of between S$27.1 billion ($20.3 billion) and S$27.6 billion this year.

But a glitch-free summit will increase the chances of more big-ticket events.

“As with all high-profile visits, it places Singapore on the map for international audiences and showcases Singapore as an ideal destination, especially for business and meetings,” said Oliver Chong, executive director of communications and marketing capability at the tourism board.

($1 = 1.3330 Singapore dollars)

(Reporting by Dewey Sim and Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Robert Birsel)

As Kim arrives in Singapore, no North Korean comrades in sight

FILE PHOTO: A view of the entrance of the North Korean embassy in Singapore May 24, 2018. Picture taken May 24, 2018. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo

By John Geddie and Fathin Ungku

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Stella Choi, the principal of a Korean language school in a drab tower in downtown Singapore, works just across the elevator lobby from the modest suites that make up North Korea’s embassy.

Yet the South Korean national, who runs the iSpeak Korean Language Centre, says she has neither seen nor spoken to any of her Northern neighbors or people entering the embassy since they moved in two years ago.

Choi’s experience is consistent with the extremely low profile Singapore’s small community of North Koreans has kept in recent years as diplomatic pressure on their home country made traveling and working abroad increasingly difficult.

But they have disappeared in recent years as U.N. sanctions tightened around Pyongyang, and Singapore has been among the countries that have dutifully implemented resolutions to cut trade ties, ban transactions with North Korean banks and cancel the work passes of its citizens.

North Korea’s place in the world – and that of its diaspora – comes into focus in Singapore next week, when the city-state hosts the first ever summit between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un will discuss ending the North’s nuclear weapons and missile programs in return for diplomatic and economic incentives.

Singapore, a global trading and financial hub, was once home to a close-knit group of a few dozen North Korean diplomats and businessmen responsible for channelling money, fuel and goods to the secretive state.

While it still maintains diplomatic ties, North Korea’s embassy has moved from a three-storey property in a lively neighborhood of heritage shop-houses to its present unassuming home.

“I hope to see them one day. Since the North and South Korean relationship is getting better, I may even be able to speak to them,” said Choi.

Reuters has visited the North Korean embassy multiple times over the last year but on all but one occasion there appeared to be nobody there. Reuters did once meet the embassy’s first secretary, Ri Pyong Dok, while he was entering the embassy in February 2017, but he declined comment.

In a call in recent weeks to the embassy to ask about preparations for the summit, a North Korean staffer also declined comment.

The Singapore foreign ministry has four North Korean officials and their spouses in its list of diplomatic and consular staff as of June 2018.

STRATEGICALLY MANAGED

“The sanctions and the pressure that was put on by the U.S. and its allies were definitely … key motivating forces that encouraged him (Kim Jong Un) to consider engaging more, and to come out and have this summit,” said Nicholas Fang, director of security and global affairs at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

North Korea has always strategically managed its expatriate population, mainly sending them to allies like China and Russia, where they feel they will not be corrupted by Western ideals.

Singapore is probably the most diplomatically neutral place where they’ve based people historically – more for trade reasons than diplomacy, said John Kim, a Korean-American businessman who advises a non-profit offering training in entrepreneurship and business in North Korea.

Kim said he had not spoken to a North Korean in Singapore in around five years. The last person John Kim spoke to told him there were around 50 North Koreans operating in the city-state, mainly in industries like shipping, although there are no official figures of the size of the community.

In contrast, there are about 20,000 South Koreans living in Singapore.

In November, Singapore suspended all trade with North Korea to comply with tightening U.N. regulations.

In March, Singapore said it had revoked the work permits of all remaining North Koreans in the country.

A long-time South Korean resident of Singapore who did not want to be named said until a few years ago, groups of North Koreans would come into South Korean-run restaurants for barbecue dinners and would sometimes strike up casual conversations with the South Korean patrons or staff.

They would be relaxed and friendly, though there was occasionally tension in the banter, reflecting the rivalry between the two states, he said.

One more prominent North Korean figure in Singapore was Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of the current leader who was assassinated at Kuala Lumpur airport last year.

A socialite, he often drank at a plush bar on the top of the iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel or in one of the city-state’s many karaoke joints, according to one of his friends, who declined to be named, citing safety reasons.

The friend said Kim Jong Nam was down-to-earth, self-deprecating and open to jokes about his family connections.

“We would always ask, ‘So Kim, what do you think about communism?’ and he’s was always saying, ‘I’m all about peace and love.”

(Reporting by John Geddie, Fathin Ungku and Jack Kim; Editing by Sam Holmes and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Death, POWs and buried silver: Chequered history of Trump-Kim summit venue

FILE PHOTO: Interpol's headquarters are seen in Singapore November 18, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo

By Dewey Sim and Aradhana Aravindan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A resort island off Singapore that once housed a prisoner of war camp run by wartime Japanese forces and was called “Rear Death Island” is the venue for Tuesday’s summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The island is now called Sentosa, or Peace and Tranquility, and the two leaders will meet in the Capella hotel, a refurbished British Royal Artillery mess, where, according to legend, there may be silver buried under the lawn.

There were few tourists at the Capella on Wednesday but police, other security personnel and workers were thronging the luxury sprawling hotel to prepare for the meeting that is set to start in six days time.

The hotel is honoring existing guest reservations for now but no new bookings were being accepted.

While Singapore has hosted major summits in the past, none have been held on Sentosa, better known for its beaches, hotels, a casino and a Universal Studios theme park.

“That means having to plan the security strategy from scratch,” said Toby Koh, group managing director at Ademco Security Group, which provides security systems to businesses in several Asian countries.

Koh is not involved in security for the summit.

The United States and North Korea are technically still at war, being the signatories along with China of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. Trump has indicated he would try to sign a document that formally ends the war.

Singapore has declared all of Sentosa island a “special event area” for the Trump-Kim summit, which means it will be subject to enhanced security checks, potentially slowing the movement of traffic, and banning the use of loudspeakers and drones.

Even though hotels and other establishments on the island was bracing for disruptions for several days next week, the government agency that handles its management said it would be “business as usual.”

But those who live in the multi-million dollar homes on the island, linked to Singapore by a causeway, monorail and cable car, were braced for delays.

“Sentosa has only one entrance and if the entrance is blocked completely, it will definitely be a major inconvenience,” said Patricia Siswandjo, a Sentosa resident.

Once a graveyard and named Pulau Belakang Mati, which roughly means “Rear Death Island” in Malay, it was developed as a tourist attraction in the 1970s, when it was enlarged through land reclamation.

UNDER THE LAWN

Included in the Capella are two colonial-era bungalows that used to accommodate British artillery officers and was also their regimental mess. According to the hotel’s web site, the officers buried the regimental silver in front of the mess before the Japanese invasion.

Part of the silver was recovered from Malaysia in later years “but the whereabouts of the rest is still unknown, and possibly still lying under the lawn”, the web site said.

Today the Capella is a part of real estate development company called Pontiac Land Group, which is owned by Singapore’s billionaire Kwee family that bought the brand from former Ritz Carlton president Horst Schulze last year.

It has 112 rooms, suites, villas and manors, including the three-bedroom colonial manor, which goes for 10,000 Singapore dollars ($7,500) a night. The grounds have three pools, tennis courts and a spa.

Although no announcements have been made, the leaders are unlikely to stay on Sentosa.

Singapore has designated a separate area near its main downtown district as another special event zone, which has several luxury hotels, which could house the two delegations.

The Orchard Road district also has most major embassies, the Interpol regional office, condominiums, high-end shops and malls and some seedy bars and massage parlours.

The Orchard Towers, a short stroll from some of the major hotels that have been mentioned as possible venues to host Trump and Kim, is home to the embassies of Cambodia and Romania but also a series of establishments with names such as “Naughty Girl” and “Top 5” that come to life after dark.

Not far from there is the Shangri-La Hotel, the site for the historic and only meeting between China’s President Xi Jinping and then-Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou in 2015. Last weekend, the hotel hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and other defense ministers for the annual Shangri-La Dialogue and local media have said it could be where Trump stays.

Security will be the biggest priority for Singapore, ranked one of the safest countries in the world, but which has been stepping up efforts to deter terrorism in recent years.

While both leaders will bring their own personal security teams, elite Singaporean police, including its Gurkha Contingent, will be securing the summit venue, roads and hotels, according to diplomats familiar with VIP security in the island state.

“Because of the unique sensitivities and peculiarities of the summit, almost anything unpredictable could possibly affect the summit itself,” Graham Ong-Webb, a research fellow, at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said.

(Additional reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by Jack Kim and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

South Korea calls for more impromptu talks with North Korea as U.S. prepares for summit

FILE PHOTO: South Korean President Moon Jae-in is greeted by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during their summit at the truce village of Panmunjom, North Korea, in this handout picture provided by the Presidential Blue House on May 26, 2018. Picture taken on May 26, 2018. The Presidential Blue House /Handout via REUTERS

By Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said on Monday there could be more impromptu talks and summits with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, as U.S. officials prepare for a historic meeting between President Donald Trump and Kim.

Moon and Kim Jong Un held a surprise meeting on Saturday at the border village of Panmunjom, during which they agreed that a North Korea-U.S. summit must be held.

“What’s more important than anything from the latest inter-Korean summit was that the leaders easily got in contact, easily made an appointment and easily met to discuss urgent matters, without complicated procedures and formalities, just like a casual meeting,” Moon told a meeting with senior secretaries.

Trump last week pulled out of the meeting with Kim, planned for June 12 in Singapore, before announcing he had reconsidered and American and North Korean officials were meeting to work out details.

On Sunday, the U.S. State Department said U.S. and North Korean officials had met at Panmunjom, a village in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that runs along the heavily armed border between North and South Korea.

A “pre-advance” team of U.S. officials was also traveling to Singapore to meet with North Koreans there, the White House said.

Asian stocks and U.S. share futures gained on Monday, while shares in South Korean construction and railway firms surged after Trump said his officials and North Korea have resumed talks to prepare for the summit in June.

Shares of Shinwon Corp, which used to operate factories in the Kaesong industrial region near the Demilitarized Zone, jumped 22 percent, while Hyundai Engineering & Construction gained 24 percent.

“PROFESSIONAL TEAM”

A U.S. official told Reuters that Sung Kim, the former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, was leading the American delegation to meet North Korean officials at the border.

“It’s a good thing to have him onboard,” said a former senior South Korean official who worked with Sung Kim in past. “He’s capable, level-headed, cautious, and has solid grasp of the issues and knows North Koreans well. But at the same time he has healthy scepticism.”

Pentagon official Randall Schriver was also part of the U.S. team, the U.S. official said. The Washington Post first reported the team met with Choe Son Hui, the North Korean vice foreign minister. The U.S. delegation also included Allison Hooker, the Korea expert on the White House National Security Council.

After weeks of political posturing by both Trump and Kim, analysts welcomed the news the United States had dispatched a team of seasoned negotiators to hold several days of preparatory talks with the North Koreans.

“Sending such an experienced and professional team signals that the Trump administration is getting serious about the specifics of an agreement,” said former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, Abraham Denmark. “It’s also an implicit acknowledgment that running this negotiation out of the Oval Office has not worked, and that lower-level officials are needed to work out the details before a summit can take place.”

Still, with only a few weeks left until the scheduled summit, such talks are unlikely to reconcile the differing positions over Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, he said.

“No matter how experienced and knowledgeable these officials are, they will not be able to change the fundamental challenge between the United States and North Korea over its status as a nuclear power.”

ADDITIONAL TALKS

North Korea has faced years of economic sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs since it conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.

The United States has struggled to slow the isolated country’s weapons programs, which have become a security priority for Washington given Pyongyang’s promise to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland.

In remarks on Sunday, Moon acknowledged Pyongyang and Washington may have differing expectations of what denuclearization means and he urged both sides to hold working-level talks to resolve their differences.

The United States has demanded the “complete, verifiable, and irreversible” dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang has rejected unilateral disarmament and has always couched its language in terms of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

In previous, failed talks, North Korea said it could consider giving up its arsenal if Washington removed its troops from South Korea and withdrew its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan.

Moon said Saturday’s summit with Kim, which was organized on short notice after the North Korean leader requested a meeting, should be a model for increased contact between the leaders of the two Koreas.

“If we could hold working-level, back-to-back talks on both sides of Panmunjom if urgently necessary in addition to formal summits, it would expedite faster advancement of inter-Korean relations,” Moon told his aides.

(For graphic on Korea: a land divided, click: https://tmsnrt.rs/2KfOFYQ)

(Writing by Josh Smith. Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

Trump cancels summit with North Korea scheduled for next month

FILE PHOTO: A combination photo shows U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (R) in Washignton, DC, U.S. May 17, 2018 and in Panmunjom, South Korea, April 27, 2018 respectively. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque and Korea Summit Press Pool/File Photos

By David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday called off a planned historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, even after North Korea followed through on a pledge to blow up tunnels at its nuclear test site.

Referring to a scheduled June 12 meeting with Kim in Singapore, Trump said in a letter to the North Korean leader: “Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it would be inappropriate, at this time, to have this long- planned meeting.”

Trump called it “a missed opportunity” and said he still hoped to meet Kim someday.

The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s cancellation of the summit.

U.S. stocks dropped sharply on the news, with the benchmark S&P 500 Index falling more than half a percent in about 10 minutes. Investors turned to U.S. Treasury debt as a safe alternative, driving the yield on the 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, down to a 10-day low and back below the psychologically important 3 percent level.

The U.S. dollar also weakened broadly, particularly against the Japanese yen, which climbed to a two-week high against the greenback.

“Please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place,” Trump wrote.

“You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God that they will never have to be used,” he said.

Earlier on Thursday, North Korea repeated a threat to pull out of the summit with Trump next month and warned it was prepared for a nuclear showdown with Washington if necessary.

FADED HOPE

North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons has been a source of tension on the Korean peninsula for decades, as well as antagonism with Washington. The rhetoric reached new heights under Trump as he mocked Kim as “little rocket man” and in address at the United Nations threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea if necessary. Kim had called Trump mentally deranged and threatened to “tame” him with fire.

Kim rarely leaves North Korea and his willingness to meet and Trump’s acceptance sparked hope but it had faded in recent days.

In a statement released by North Korean media, Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui had called U.S. Vice President Mike Pence a “political dummy” for comparing North Korea – a “nuclear weapons state” – to Libya, where Muammar Gaddafi gave up his unfinished nuclear development program, only to be later killed by NATO-backed fighters.

“Whether the U.S. will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States,” Choe said.

A small group of international media selected by North Korea witnessed the demolition of tunnels at the Punggye-ri site on Thursday, which Pyongyang says is proof of its commitment to end nuclear testing.

The apparent destruction of what North Korea says is its only nuclear test site has been widely welcomed as a positive, if largely symbolic, step toward resolving tension over its weapons. North Korean leader Kim has declared his nuclear force complete, amid speculation the site was obsolete anyway.

Cancellation of what would have been the first ever summit between a serving U.S president and a North Korean leader denies Trump what supporters hoped could have been the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency, and one worthy of a Nobel Prize.

“I felt a wonderful dialogue was building between you and me, and ultimately it is only that dialogue that matters,” Trump said in his letter to Kim. “Some day, I look very much forward to meeting you.”

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Hyonhee Shin in Seoul; Writing by Josh Smith and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Robert Birsel and Bill Trott)

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