Speculation over how North Korea
will handle the costs for Kim Jong Un’s meeting with President Donald Trump has taken off after a report cited two anonymous U.S. officials suggesting the Trump administration has been “seeking a discreet way” to help pay Kim’s hotel bill.
TOKYO — When — and if — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump hold their summit at an exclusive venue in Singapore, one of the priciest destinations in Asia, they will no doubt run up quite a bill.
And if past precedent is any indication, expect Pyongyang to pay as little of it as possible.
Speculation over how North Korea will handle the costs for Kim’s June 12 meeting with Trump has taken off after a Washington Post report cited two anonymous U.S. officials suggesting the Trump administration has been “seeking a discreet way” to help pay Kim’s hotel bill.
The report suggested Singapore, the host nation, might take care of it.
One reported option, the Fullerton Hotel, features a $6,000-a-night price tag for its presidential suite.
While Kim could decide to stay the night, or maybe even two, he might also be in a hurry to get back home, in which case the North Korean leader wouldn’t need a room so much as a base camp. North Korea has an embassy in Singapore, but that likely wouldn’t be good enough to meet the logistical and security demands of a fullon summit.
North Korea may want to send a large delegation to accompany Kim and provide its own security. If there are any feelers going out about cost-sharing, that’s a likely topic.
Whatever the venue, it’s debatable why an outside party would need to pay.
North Korea’s government has ample funds to cover important meetings for Kim.
While speculative, the North Korean leader is believed by some foreign experts to be worth well over $1 billion and have access to billions dollars more thanks to the full backing of his country.
But as history has shown, summits with the Kim family don’t come cheap.
Seoul reportedly spent somewhere in the range of $5 million to cover the costs of President Moon Jae-in’s first summit with Kim in April — a daylong affair that was held in publicly owned buildings on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone.
And though this falls in a category all of its own, former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung’s administration secretly paid $500 million to just to get Kim Jong Un’s father to agree to the first-ever North Korea-South Korea summit in 2000.
The South Korean president won that year’s Nobel Peace Prize, before the payment was made public. One of his aides was convicted and went to prison.
Hosting North Koreans at sports events can also have extra costs attached.
South Korea paid $2.5 million to cover the costs of more than 400 North Koreans, only 22 of whom were athletes, at the Pyeongchang Games in February.
The Olympics were the first big step of Kim’s ongoing diplomatic campaign, which he announced in January.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert has denied the U.S. would pay for North Korea in Singapore and said Washington wasn’t asking anyone else to, either.
In keeping with normal practice, Singaporewill have to put out for general security and various other expenses.
Singapore announced Monday that it was declaring part of its city center a “special event area” from June 10 to June 14 for the summit.
The designation will allow for greater security in the area, which is near the U.S. Embassy as well as several hotels, including the Shangri-La.
The Shangri-La has been mentioned as a possible venue for the talks due to its experience as the site of an annual security conference that draws defense officials from around the globe.
Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen on Saturday confirmed the country would foot some costs.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has also offered to chip in a share of the million dollars it was awarded for winning the Nobel Peace Prize last year.