Nobel Peace Prize winner International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has stepped up to the plate and offered to foot the monumental bill for the cost of the June 12 summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un here.
According to Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen last Saturday, Singapore may be in the position of shouldering any costs in relation to security and logistics issues for the landmark meeting. Hefty bills abound — especially since The Washington Post revealed that the North Korean leader is allegedly demanding to stay at The Fullerton Hotel, a grand five-star heritage building by the Singapore River, where a single night in the presidential suite could chalk up a bill of more than S$8,000 (US$6,000).
That’s where ICAN wants to come in. The anti-nuclear campaign group informed Reuters that it was willing to use its prize money to pay for any accommodation or meeting space required to make the summit a success.
“The Nobel Peace Prize included a cash prize and we are offering funds from the prize to cover the costs for the summit, in order to support peace in the Korean Peninsula and a nuclear-weapon-free world,” ICAN official Akira Kawasaki told Reuters, adding that it’s a “once in a generation opportunity” to rid the world of nukes.
ICAN was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year for “its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons,” according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The cash that comes with the lauded prize? 9 million Swedish Krona, equivalent to about SGD$1.4 million.
Cash-strapped North Korea has a history of making other governments pay for its expenses when its officials travel abroad. In February, the South Korean government set aside about USD$2.6 million in hotel, meal, and transportation expenses for a North Korean delegation that came to the Pyeongchang Olympics.
“North Korea can build nukes and ICBMs, but claim they are too poor to pay for foreign travel costs,” said Sung-Yoon Lee, an expert on Korea at Tufts University in a Washington Post report.
ICAN has clarified that their offer is not about funding the North Korean leader’s extravagant demands.
“It’s not about paying for luxury rooms for the leader of the DPRK or anyone, that’s not our intention,” Kawasaki said to Reuters.
As for President Trump, it’s likely that he’ll be staying a Shangri-La Hotel — a preferred venue to stay and host meetings by past American presidents. In fact, the Tanglin area surrounding the luxury hotel has been declared a “special event area” for the upcoming summit, raising the probability for the actual meeting to take place there.
Others have speculated that the first-ever sit-down between an American president and a North Korean leader could take place in the resort island of Sentosa — a place known more for rollercoaster rides, beach parties and expensive abodes than political pow-wows.
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