By Jessica Kwong
Staff Writer
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A venue for the historic summit in Singapore between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been decided—Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island.
Related: Kim Jong Un Wants Hotel With $6,000 Per Night Suite for Singapore Summit and U.S. May Pay For It
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made the announcement on her Twitter account Tuesday afternoon, instilling more confidence that the summit aimed at denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula will happen on June 12. Trump had canceled the meeting last month before announcing that it was back on Friday following the welcoming of one of Kim's top envoys to the White House.
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"We thank our great Singaporean hosts for their hospitality," Sanders tweeted.
Here are five facts about Capella Hotel:
1. Five-star luxury
Located in an island resort off the southern coast of Singapore, Capella Hotel is only a few minutes' walk to the beach. Its website was down on Monday afternoon shortly after Sanders's announcement. It has 112 rooms and suites, according to Grand Luxury Hotels.
The hotel opened in 2009 and was designed by the British architect Norman Foster. Its meeting rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows offering views of the South China Sea.
"One of the hallmarks of the #TrueCapella experience is our personal assistants, who provide you with insider tips, personalized service and a bespoke experience from start to finish," Capella Singapore tweeted in late May.
2. Secluded
Sentosa Island only has one land link to the mainland, a 710-meter causeway, and is also linked by cable car.
"The location of Capella hotel which is separated from [the] mainland may serve as a virtual wall to keep out security threats from approaching the summit," Singaporean national security researcher Muhammad Faizal Abdul Rahman told This Week in Asia.
3. Locally owned
Capella Hotel belongs to the Pontiac Land Group, which is owned by the Singaporean Kwee brothers, according to the South China Morning Post.
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4. New to the political scene
The hotel has not hosted high-level political meetings in the past, unlike the Shangri-La Hotel, according to the Post. The Shangri-La hotel had long been seen as the likely venue for the summit and had previously hosted former U.S. presidents George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama. Speculation about its selection grew on Monday when the Singapore government declared the area surrounding the hotel a "special event area" for the date of the summit.
5. The hotel has already been used for the Singapore summit
U.S. and North Korean delegations got together four times at Capella Hotel last week to plan the summit, and choosing a venue for the meeting was their top priority, according to CNN.
Capella Hotel was one of three hotels that were considered for the meeting, with the five-star Shangri-La Hotel and waterfront Fullerton Hotel as the other two, according to the Post. Trump and Kim are likely to stay at two different hotels away from the summit site, diplomatic sources said.
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