3 locations in Singapore considered for US-North Korea Summit

President Trump announced: “The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong-un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12. We will work hard to make this a very special moment for World Peace!”

Immediately after Mr. Trump's announcement, Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Singapore would host the event: "Singapore is pleased to host the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Kim Jong-un on June 12, 2018. We hope that this meeting will promote the prospect of peace on the Korean Peninsula."

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also affirmed that the US-North Korea Summit is "a very important step on the road to peace" and wished "this event will be a great success".

The White House said that Singapore was chosen after a series of other locations around the world such as the Panmunjom truce village and Mongolia were eliminated because this country is both highly neutral, can ensure good security for the US-North Korea leaders, and has experience organizing top-level events in the world.

On this occasion, the newspaperStraits TimesSingapore has listed three locations in the country that experts say are very suitable for hosting this historic event:

Shangri-La Hotel

The Shangri-La Hotel, home to the annual Asia security event Shangri-La Dialogue, is considered the “top choice” to host the US-North Korea Summit.

“From both a logistics and security perspective, Shangri-La fully meets the most stringent requirements, especially since they were chosen to host the Shangri-La Dialogue,” said Toby Koh, Managing Director of Ademco Security Group.

According to Mr. Toby Koh, the Shangri-La Dialogue taking place in early June will be the "perfect springboard" for security work for the US-North Korea Summit taking place a few weeks later.

“The Shangri-La Hotel is an ideal location for the US-North Korea Summit because Singapore will not have to re-plan and coordinate security activities for this event,” Mr. Toby Koh explained.

Marina Bay Sands Resort

Another option worth considering is the Marina Bay Sands Resort, which is also a “very compelling option” considering that Sheldon Adelson, chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corp., which owns the resort, was a major donor to President Donald Trump during his campaign.

However, Mr. Toby Koh said that Marina Bay Sands Resort is not an ideal location for the US-North Korea Summit. This is because Marina Bay Sands Resort is too close to the city center, moving between locations will become "torture" for officials and guests attending this event.

In addition, hosting the US-North Korea Summit at the Marina Bay Sands Resort will also pose major challenges to Singapore's security forces.

“There are too many routes leading to this location and I don’t think the Singapore authorities want to block most of these routes just to accommodate one event when there are many other more viable locations,” Mr Toby Koh added.

Sentosa Island

Sentosa Island is also considered “a very attractive choice” for the US-North Korea Summit, because of its very special location.

Sentosa Island is completely isolated from crowded areas in Singapore. Therefore, security will be maintained at the best possible level. In addition, the US and North Korean leaders will have private space to discuss important issues.

However, according to Singapore security experts, the only “negative point” for Sentosa is that the hotels on the island are not capable of serving large groups of guests and do not have much experience organizing important international events./.