White House reveals location for Trump-Kim summit

The historic summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will take place at Sentosa’s Capella hotel in Singapore

The much-anticipated meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will take place at a hotel on the Singaporean island of Sentosa, the White House has confirmed.

The historic summit is scheduled to take place on 12 June, but many details are still unconfirmed.

It will be the first meeting between a North Korean leader and a sitting US president.

Mr Trump said on Tuesday that plans were “moving along very nicely”.

“A lot of relationships being built, a lot of negotiations going on before the trip,” he told reporters.

“It’s very important – it’ll be a very important couple of days.”

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed on Twitter that the summit would take place at the five-star Capella Hotel.

UPDATE: The venue for the Singapore summit between @POTUS and Leader Kim Jong Un will be the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island. We thank our great Singaporean hosts for their hospitality.

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) June 5, 2018

Sentosa is one of 63 islands that make up Singapore.

The 500-hectare island, only a short distance from the main island, is home to luxury resorts, private marinas and plush golf clubs.

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But the island also has a dark history of piracy, bloodshed and war.

It was a pirates haunt

Singapore established itself on the map as a British trading post in the 19th Century. Its prime location on the major sea route between India and China made it an ideal location.

But even before British rule, Singapore was a flourishing trade centre, frequented by merchants and traders, as well as pirates.

Sentosa was known at that time as Pulau Blakang Mati, which directly translates as the “island behind death” – a reference to its violent piracy reputation.

The island’s population was mostly Malay, Chinese and the Bugis – seafarers originally from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

It was a World War Two massacre site

Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942, after British colonial forces surrendered.

It was given a new Japanese name – Syonan, meaning Light of the South.

Over the next few years, thousands of people were killed under an operation to purge anti-Japanese elements from the ethnic Chinese community.

Chinese men between the ages of 18 and 50 were summoned to various sites before being machine-gunned to death and thrown into the sea.

Among the massacre sites were the beaches on Sentosa, now overlooked by the Capella hotel where Mr Trump and Mr Kim will meet.

Sentosa also hosted a prisoner-of-war camp, which held some 400 Allied troops and gunners.