Forget the whys and whats for a moment—a big question has been: Where? That is to say, where, exactly, will North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump meet next month?
We should know for sure soon. In a tweet announcing that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was headed back to the U.S. with three Americans who’d been detained in North Korea, Donald Trump also addressed the upcoming meeting:
I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health. Also, good meeting with Kim Jong Un. Date & Place set.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 9, 2018
As soon as the summit was announced this spring, a few geographic parameters were put in place. For obvious reasons, the meeting could not occur in Pyongyang, as that would grant home field advantage to the tyrant. A neutral location was therefore required. That restriction also kyboshed China, as the Middle Kingdom is North Korea’s only formal ally. The U.S. and any of her territories were ruled out for the same reasons.
Another restriction was geographic: The meeting had to be held close enough to North Korea that Kim’s Soviet-built personal jet could make it in one hop. That ruled out, say, Switzerland. Ulan Bataar, Mongolia, was then floated. But according to a source in an Asian government, that location was nixed when it was discovered that there was no hotel in the Mongolian capital that is suitably luxurious for President Trump and his entourage. (To his credit, the president is not a yurt guy.)
The next thought that the meeting occur in Panmunjom, the “truce village” that is cleaved in two by the demilitarized zone that runs along the 38th parallel in Korea. That was the site of last month’s meeting between Kim and South Korean president Moon Jae-in, after all. But it was then determined that that location was not quite right, because this meeting is supposed to be a directly bilateral one between Washington and Pyongyang. Putting it on Korean territory would muddy the picture, as it would indicate South Korean influence on the proceedings.
For all of those reasons, it seems likely that Singapore, as recent reports out of South Korea indicate, will be the location of the historic summit. There’s even a suitable hotel only an hour or so away by plane.
