SINGAPORE, June 12 — Security preparations at Capella hotel went into high gear yesterday afternoon, a day before the historic Trump-Kim summit.
Just like the calm before the storm, all was fairly quiet at the Sentosa hotel at 11.10am when TODAY visited.
inal preparations were underway for today’s meeting between US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
American and North Korean flags have been put up, and lights and cameras were set up and ready to capture the action.
Minor renovation works to set up a small stage in an area behind the main entrance — observed on Sunday — seemed to have been completed.
Groups of North Korean and American personnel could be observed coming and going, and at times could be seen locked in lengthy discussions.
Two North Korean photographers were also observed by TODAY following the delegation, with one photographer excitedly snapping photos of the furnishings in the five-star luxury hotel, with his DSLR camera.
At least 10 police officers were stationed at various parts of the hotel, such as near the lifts and swimming pools.
No hotel guests were seen on the premises, and security was tight, with cars entering the hotel going through stringent security checks.
At about 2.30pm, TODAY observed a group of about 20 security officers exiting the side entrances of Capella Hotel, carrying a metal detector and leading a sniffer dog.
At around 3pm, a pink and purple bus ferrying about 40 North Korean security officers arrived at the Capella Hotel, along with several white vans carrying North Korean delegates.
Then at about 4pm, close to 100 security officers — including officers from the Singapore Police Force’s In-situ reaction team and emergency response teams — started trooping in. This was followed by another busload of about 50 officers at 5pm.
Despite the increased activity at Capella, visitors elsewhere on the island were barely affected.
Two Australian tourists from Perth who are putting up at Sofitel Hotel, told TODAY that they had not been inconvenienced by security checks. But they had been told by hotel staff to carry around their identification cards today.
An Indonesian tourist, who wanted to be known only as Ms Lily, 31, said: “Everything seems normal, I wasn’t asked to check my bags.”
She was on a one-day trip to the Republic from Batam and had no plans to stay for the summit.
Besides additional auxiliary security officers being stationed at the entrance of the island’s monorail stations on Monday afternoon, TODAY also spotted several police cars patrolling the areas near Palawan beach.
They however, were not seen approaching visitors for bag checks. — TODAY
