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S'pore picked as US-North Korea summit venue for its security and neutrality: White House

SINGAPORE/WASHINGTON — Singapore was chosen as the venue for the summit between United States President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for security and neutrality reasons, said the White House.

The US has zeroed in on Singapore as the venue for a historic summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The US has zeroed in on Singapore as the venue for a historic summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

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SINGAPORE/WASHINGTON — Singapore was chosen as the venue for the summit between United States President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for security and neutrality reasons, said the White House.

Asked about the choice of the Republic for the historic summit on June 12, White House spokesman Raj Shah said that “Singapore has a relationship with both the United States and North Korea" and "can… ensure both the President's security and Kim Jong-un's security, as well as provide neutrality.”

"Singaporeans have been gracious up until now and also in the past. In fact, on a historical note, the first meeting between the leaders of China and Taiwan took place in Singapore some years back," he added, referring to the meeting between Chinese president Xi Jinping and his Taiwanese counterpart Ma Ying-jeou at Singapore's Shangri-La Hotel in November 2015.

President Trump had announced the date and venue of his much-anticipated meeting with Mr Kim in a tweet just hours after Mr Trump met the three recently freed American hostages at Joint Base Andrews, where they arrived in the middle of the night after their release by North Korea.

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong replied to Mr Trump's tweet saying that the meeting would be a "significant step on the path to peace", and expressed hopes that it would be successful.

In a phone call between Mr Trump and Mr Lee on Friday, the US President thanked Singapore for hosting the summit, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.

"He said there had been significant progress on this matter just in the last few months and hoped that the Summit would contribute to resolving this long outstanding issue," the statement read.

"PM Lee said he looked forward to welcoming President Trump to Singapore for the forthcoming (summit) on June 12... and Singapore was honoured to host it, and would do our best to facilitate a smooth and successful meeting. This would be an important first step in the long process of securing lasting peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula."

Mr Lee also invited Mr Trump to visit Singapore again in November 2018 for a State Visit, in conjunction with the 6th Asean-US Summit and the 13th East Asia Summit.

The US-North Korea summit will be the first face-to-face meeting between a sitting American president and the North Korean leader. Releasing the hostages removed a significant obstacle for Mr Trump as he heads into the peace talks. A senior United States official said releasing the three men was an American condition to the talks.

Mr Trump hopes to convince Mr Kim to abandon his nuclear weapons and the missiles that can carry them. When Mr Trump greeted the hostages in the early morning hours, he told reporters that his proudest achievement will be “when we denuclearise that entire peninsula.”

The president only recently ruled out a meeting site in the Demilitarised Zone, the strip of land that divides the Koreas.

Singapore, while considered a more neutral site, is a common port of call for American warships.

In determining the location of the meeting, officials also had to consider the limited places where Mr Kim could travel due to his nation’s aging fleet of Soviet-era aircraft.

“Hopefully everything is going to work out at the highest level,” Mr Trump said earlier on Thursday. “We want to thank Kim Jong-un, who really was excellent to these three incredible people.”

In a statement to the media, the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it “hopes this meeting will advance prospects for peace in the Korean Peninsula.

It added: “Singapore is pleased to host the meeting between President of the United States Donald J Trump and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un on June 12, 2018.”

Last year Mr Trump and Mr Kim threatened nuclear war against each other’s countries.

Asked if the upcoming summit could last beyond a day, Mr Shah said: "Right now, we're just looking at June 12th... We're still planning out a lot more of the details.  So I don't want to get ahead of anything more specific."

He reiterated that the US’ goal remains ensuring "the complete, irreversible, and verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula".

S’PORE AN ‘HONEST BROKER’

Former US Ambassador to Singapore David Adelman said Singapore is an ideal site for the meeting as it has historically been an “honest broker” between the East and West.

“Singapore has been a great friend to the US but also Singapore has carefully worked to be a friend to all, which has earned it trust in capitals around the world,” he added.

Think-tank Korean Peninsula Future Forum visiting senior research fellow Duyeon Kim told Los Angeles Times that Singapore "doesn't give Trump or Kim the dramatic photo op they would otherwise enjoy or home-court advantage”.

She added: “But it's a nominally neutral country … [this could] help in reducing some distractions and keeping the focus of the summit on substance, especially when the stakes are so high.”

Analysts in Singapore also pointed out that the country does not carry any “historical or political baggage”.

Associate research fellow Sarah Teo from the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Nanyang Technological University said: “Singapore is considered neutral ground, so meeting in Singapore would seem relatively fair to both sides.”

RSIS research fellow Graham Ong-Webb noted that Singapore has ties with both countries. For instance, North Korea has an embassy here, which reflects its diplomatic relations with Singapore. Meanwhile, the Republic also has a long-standing partnership with the US on both economic and security fronts, he noted.

The analysts added that Singapore is no stranger to hosting international summits, and has a good track record of doing so. It has hosted numerous Association for South-east Asia Nations (Asean) meetings, the East Asia Summit in 2007 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in 2009.

Besides the historic Xi-Ma meeting in 2015, another landmark meeting between China and Taiwan also took place in Singapore in 1993.

Representatives from China’s Communist Party and Taiwan’s Kuomingtang met for the first time in the Republic, with the Chinese represented by Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Wang Daohan and Taiwan by Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Koo Chen-fu, in what became known as the “Wang-Koo summit”.

On the likely location for the Trump-Kim meeting, the analysts singled out Shangri-La Hotel given its track record in hosting the yearly Shangri-La Dialogue.

Noting that the hotel has hosted former American presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama, Dr Ong-Webb said:  “There have been precedents, in terms of security and comfort, that US presidents like to stay in Shangri-La Hotel.”

Hosting the meeting would reinforce Singapore’s reputation as a neutral country, said adjunct research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s East Asia Institute Lim Tai Wei.

“Other countries may wish to tap into Singapore's neutral position for similar peace talks (in future)… and reinforce its reputation for a consistently principled foreign policy,” he added. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SIAU MING EN

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