A HISTORIC summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was expected to be a success, according to experts, as Kim was likely to offer a vague promise on denuclearisation when they meet in Singapore tomorrow, leaving tough negotiations over implementation for later.

“Kim’s most urgent need is to alleviate the threat of a US preventive military strike and to get at least some of the economic sanctions lifted,” Hawaii-based East West Centre’s senior fellow of research programme Denney Roy told The Nation in an interview via e-mail.

North Korea’s nuclear programme and missile tests over the past few years have brought the secretive communist regime to the brink of a nuclear state, which has given it strong bargaining powers with Washington.

A summit with the US president is critical for the Pyongyang leader to make his regime secure.

“He also wants to gain international prestige, establish a normal relationship with the US where he is treated as an equal, and make progress towards weakening the US-South Korea security cooperation,” Roy said.

Kim likely wants to get North Korea into a position where both Beijing and Washington are competing with each other to gain influence in Pyongyang by granting favours, he said.

While denuclearisation is the ultimate goal to stabilise the Korean Peninsula, President Trump is likely to hold his cards close to his chest.

“I think that very quickly I’ll know whether or not something good is going to happen,” Trump told reporters in Quebec over the weekend.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has met Kim Jong-un twice, said earlier that the reclusive North Korean leader had indicated the regime was prepared to denuclearise. The top US diplomat refrained from talking about the plan, saying the two leaders would discuss the issue during their summit.

An expert on Korean affairs, Roy said the summit could be called a success if there were any commitment on denuclearisation, with the hard bargaining over implementation left for later negotiations.

However the key to the success of the summit also depends on the diplomatic style and negotiating skills of the two leaders. While Trump is unpredictable, Kim is virtually unknown. His first appearance in the diplomatic world was only when he was on camera with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in at Panmunjom in late April.

“At that time, he managed to not look like a monster, which is not very difficult. We don’t know how he might perform one-on-one with Trump. I would expect he will be well-prepared and wily,” Roy said.

The success or failure of the Singapore summit would have implications for other countries in the region too. China, Japan and South Korea are also stakeholders in the peace and security in the Korean Peninsula. All of them have different interests and agendas in the summit, Roy said. “So a result that is good for the US might not be so good for Japan, a result that is good for China might not be that good for the US, and so on.”

Southeast Asia, which the summit will take place, would also benefit from the historic meeting, Thammasat University political science expert Viboonpong Poonprasit said.

“While this summit would not follow the normal protocol with both leaders making on-the-scene talks, the outcome should be positive or neutral at the least and help guarantee more stability in the concerned regions,” he said. “While Trump looks for denuclearisation of North Korea, Kim would wish for the US to phase out from the Korean Peninsula as well as reduce sanctions,” he said, adding, “Their efforts should at least maintain a peaceful atmosphere.”

Irrespective of the summit outcome, Thailand’s situation would not change as far as abiding with international orders, including economic sanctions regarding North Korea, is concerned, he said.

“Our decreased economic ties with Pyongyang, which is not economically significant, has been to keep the status quo with the international community. I see no need to be eager to change that,” he added.

Trump indicated that Pyongyang would be rewarded with economic assistance if the regime complied with the denuclearisation programme and Washington expected that developed economies in the peninsula would actively participate.

State Secretary Pompeo said economic assistance and North Korea’s denuclearisation are “incredibly linked”.

“For North Korea to have the security assurances it needs, it needs to know that it has an economic – economically viable path forward. It has to know that its people can eat and that they can have the wealth that the North Korean people so richly deserve,” he said. “So, these are very closely linked issues; it’s difficult to separate them out. And so not only Japan, but South Korea, China – I imagine many nations will want to participate in the North Korean economy if we are successful in Singapore,” Pompeo said in an interview with NHK last week.

They were among a group of four people “geocaching” — using their smartphone’s GPS to search for little treasures hidden all over the world — when the rapidly rising water from the storm trapped them in the Czech capital’s underground drainage system on Saturday night.

“A woman was found dead in the Vltava (river) and a man is still missing,” police spokesman Jan Rybansky told AFP. The sewer system drains into the Vltava.

The identity of the 27-year-old victim has not yet been confirmed by the coroner.

The other two members of the group managed to escape and were hospitalised, the police spokesman said, and the search for the missing man resumed on Sunday.

No fewer than three aircraft made their way to Singapore from Pyongyang airport, a facility that frequently sees fewer than three international flights a day.

One of them was the ageing Soviet-made Ilyushin-62 that is Kim’s personal jet — officially known as “Chammae-1”, or Goshawk-1, after the North’s national bird but perhaps more memorably dubbed “Air Force Un”.

But while Singapore is well within its range, questions have been raised about its reliability and Kim, it turned out, was not on board.

Instead he flew on an Air China Boeing 747. According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, it took off using flight number CA122, a standard designation for the airline’s route from Pyongyang to Beijing.

In midair it changed its callsign to CA061 and headed south.

In Singapore its high-profile passenger was met by Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, who tweeted a picture of himself shaking hands with Kim, who wore a dark lapel-less suit.

 A handout photo made available by the Ministry of Communications and Information of Singapore shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) as he arrives at Changi Airport in Singapore, 10 June 2018. 

Kim was driven into the city-state in a convoy of more than 20 vehicles, including an ambulance, with North Korean television cameramen filming his progress through the sunroofs.

Hundreds of Singaporeans lined the streets to capture images of their own of his black Mercedes Benz stretch limousine with tinted windows — not normally allowed in Singapore, even for the country’s prime minister.

Journalists and onlookers watch the motorcade carrying North Koran leader Kim Jong Un (not pictured) arriving at the St. Regis hotel ahead of the US-North Korea summit in Singapore on June 10, 2018. // AFP PHOTO

Reporters and photographers packed the pavements outside the St Regis hotel where Kim was to stay. Covers had been hung over the driveway and hotel security brought out additional potted plants to obstruct the view of the lobby.

Aside from three official photographs released by the Singapore government, there had been no public sighting of Kim nearly two hours after he landed.

– Eye-wateringly expensive –

Located just off Singapore’s diplomatic district and a stone’s throw away from the Orchard Road shopping belt, the modernist St Regis is tucked between an ageing building dotted with carpet shops and a sleepy high-end neighbourhood mall.

Rooms at the establishment start at Sg$320 ($240) a night.

On the 20th floor, the ostentatiously opulent 335-square metre (3,606 square feet) Presidential Suite, where Kim was believed likely to stay, features a Marc Chagall artwork and a white baby grand piano.

Singapore police patrol along the perimeter of the St Regis hotel, where North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will stay, ahead of his expected arrival, in Singapore, 10 June 2018. // EPA-EFE PHOTO

Its rooms are “lined with gold, and accented with precious metals like brass, onyx and silver”, the hotel says on its website.

It does not give prices but the list price of a similar facility in New York is $35,000 a night.

Who will pick up the bill for the North Koreans’ stay has been the subject of much speculation — the North’s economy has suffered from years of mismanagement and is now subject to multiple sanctions over its nuclear ambitions.

Pyongyang has a history of trying to have others pay for its travel — Seoul paid for its delegates to this year’s Winter Olympics in the South.

But a Seoul presidential spokesman said it was “not considering it at all at the moment”, while the US has insisted it will not foot the bill — and is not asking anyone else to do so.

A handout photo made available by the Ministry of Communications and Information of Singapore shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (2-L) is welcomed by Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan (3-R) upon his arrival at Changi Airport in Singapore, 10 June 2018. 

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Sunday his government was spending around Sg$20 million to host the summit, around half of it on security.

“It’s a cost that we are willing to pay. It’s our contribution to an international endeavour which is in our profound interests,” he said.

He did not mention the North Koreans’ hotel bill.

Armoured vans lined the streets of the coastal city of Qingdao as world leaders arrived Friday for the 18th annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional security bloc led by China and Russia.

Its member states also include four ex-Soviet Central Asian republics, Pakistan and India. Iran is an observer member.

Authorities emptied an entire oceanside swathe of the city — clearing out shopkeepers, residents and day-trippers to make way for Xi, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani.

Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also attend the meeting.

The leaders will be addressed by Xi this evening at an opening banquet from 7.45pm (1145 GMT), according to the official schedule, before taking in a fireworks display.

The SCO meeting comes after President Donald Trump controversially pulled Washington out of the 2015 international pact with Iran that placed limits on its nuclear programme in return for easing economic sanctions.

Though not officially on the agenda, analysts say that one key topic of discussion this year may focus on whether Iran will be allowed to ascend from its position as an SCO observer to become a full member state — a development it has sought since 2008 but has been unable to achieve while subject to UN sanctions.

The 2015 nuclear deal lifted that barrier.

Now in the wake of the US withdrawal from the pact, “SCO members may use granting full membership to Iran as a way to demonstrate support for (Tehran) and the nuclear agreement,” said Dawn Murphy, professor of international security studies at the US Air War College.

Speaking Saturday to AFP in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius, senior Iranian official Massoumeh Ebtekar said Iran hoped European powers, Russia and China would confirm their willingness to uphold the deal “as soon as possible because Iran cannot wait forever.”

“We have been a faithful player to this commitment, we’ve done our best, we’ve shown our good intentions. We are facing a very volatile region,” she said.

The tensions over Iran come as another nuclear issue dominates headlines, with Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un preparing for an unprecedented summit in Singapore.

Trade and security

Trade, investment and development cooperation issues will also feature prominently at the SCO, Murphy said, given the climate of “rising anti-globalisation and strains on global multilateral economic institutions”, stoked by Trump’s nationalist “America First” policy.

SCO nations may discuss the potential of a joint free trade area, she said, as China also pushes for participation in its Belt and Road global infrastructure project.

“Member states of the SCO are key to the success of the Belt and Road initiative and China’s growing influence as a Eurasian power,” said Murphy.

China may, however, be hindered from gaining robust support for its project at this summit due to India, the only SCO member that does not endorse it, she noted.

Regional security issues will also feature, because terrorism is the most severe security challenge facing the SCO, according to Liao Jinrong, head of the Chinese ministry of public security’s international cooperation department.

“No matter what country has terrorists, we must strengthen our regional cooperation and not allow them to affect regional security,” he told a press conference Friday, adding that the SCO bloc had stopped “hundreds” of terrorist acts.

The summit will boost cooperation on combating terrorism, drug trafficking, organised cross-border crimes and cybersecurity, he said.

Staff who fell ill after hearing strange sounds are being examined by doctors at a consulate in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, with several evacuated to the US and at least one diagnosed with brain trauma.

The new cases eerily echo the odd noises and subsequent illnesses suffered by 24 US diplomats evacuated from Cuba since 2016, deepening a baffling medical enigma.

But the incident also poses a diplomatic conundrum — how to respond to what some fear may be a deliberate attack against Americans by shadowy foes on Chinese soil.

According to a New York Times report, US officials have privately raised questions about whether China, or Russia, might have separately or in tandem targeted the diplomats.

Washington has so far taken care not to implicate Beijing, which has told US officials it is investigating the incident.

“Until they are certain of the cause, it seems premature to make accusations,” said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “I don’t think the US is calling it an ‘attack’.”

It is in stark contrast to the US handling of the Cuba case, when the State Department lashed out at Havana for failing to protect its diplomats.

Washington expelled 15 Cuban diplomats, arguing the authoritarian state must have either carried out the assaults or known who was behind them. President Donald Trump said he held Cuba responsible, although Havana denied any involvement.

There are clear reasons for the US to avoid rocking the boat so readily this time.

As a rising superpower, Beijing possesses significantly greater clout than impoverished Havana, with the cases coming at a precarious moment in US-China relations.

Ongoing talks to avoid a full-blown trade war are balanced on a knife edge, and Beijing’s cooperation is likely to be key if hopes for North Korea’s denuclearisation ahead of next week’s summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un are to be realised.

Many theories, no proof

Still lacking proof to support allegations against Cuba, US officials could also be facing up to claims there were no “sonic attacks” after all.

Although the American victims heard strange noises — described as static or the sound of metal sheets waving — studies have cast doubt on the “acoustic weapon” hypothesis.

A University of Pennsylvania team examined 21 affected staff from the Cuba embassy, and found they suffered symptoms typical of concussion such as headaches and memory loss.

“There is no known mechanism for audible sound to injure the brain,” said study author Douglas Smith. “We are pretty certain that it was not the sound itself that caused the injury.”

A Canadian investigation into similar illnesses among its own diplomats in Cuba in April said a sonic attack was “now considered unlikely”, while FBI agents sent to Havana reportedly found no evidence to support the theory.

This has not stopped speculation about other possible weapons potentially using microwaves, infrasound or ultrasound, despite technical difficulties in projecting these types of energy over long distances and through structures.

A University of Michigan study in March posed an alternative theory, suggesting the illnesses could be caused by bugging or surveillance jamming devices.

The study showed ultrasonic signals from such devices could clash with each other to create the strange sounds heard by diplomats.

Importantly, this theory would suggest there was no malicious intent — and even that the US’s own equipment could be the cause.

Others have claimed the illness may simply be psychological and dismissed the whole affair as mass hysteria.

China sceptical

In China, analysts have queried the absence of a suitable motive for an attack.

“If the Chinese government did it, then why?” said Zhu Feng, a professor of international relations at Nanjing University. “Is it happy to drive the diplomats out of China? I can’t see the reason behind it.”

“The Chinese government will not express its dissatisfaction with the US in this way,” added Wu Xinbo, a US politics expert at Fudan University.

“I think the whole event is nonsense.”

The site is located a close to another where evidence of the biggest-ever sacrifice of children was found, with more than 140 youngsters were slain. But the most recent discovery may be even bigger.

“So far we have found the remains of 56 children who were sacrificed by the Chimu culture,” archaeologist Gabriel Prieto told AFP.

“At this new site, we can easily double the number of remains we found in Huanchaquito,” he said, referring to the nearby location where over 140 dead were found.

The new sacrifice site was discovered in the Pamapa La Cruz area in Huanchaco, a coastal district of Trujillo, Peru’s third-largest city.

Prieto said that the remains of the children, who were aged between six and 14, were found in early May wrapped in cotton shrouds facing the sea, a kilometer (less than a mile) north of Huanchaquito.

“The interesting thing is that they were sacrificed with a cut in the sternum and display opened ribs like in Huanchaquito,” which reinforces the idea that “Huanchaco was a place where massive sacrifices of children were made during the Chimu culture,” he said.

In Huanchaquito, the remains of over 140 children and 200 llamas slain some 550 years ago were discovered, National Geographic reported in late April.

Those excavations date back to 2011, when the remains of 42 children and 76 llamas were discovered in a 3,500-year-old temple, according to the report.

The social media company plays an outsized role in a country that has only recently come online and boasts 18 million accounts among the population of around 50 million people.

UN investigators have said that Facebook has morphed into a “beast” in the country and that hate speech and incitement to violence against the Bengalis are rampant on the site.

In response, Facebook this week has undertaken its highest-profile visit yet to Myanmar.

It banned the Buddhist nationalist movement Ma Ba Tha from its platform, as well as a pair of prominent monks known for stoking hatred towards the Bengali.

“They are not allowed a presence on Facebook, and we will remove any accounts and content which support, praise or represent these individuals or organisations,” said Content Policy Manager David Caragliano.

Extremist monks Parmaukkha and Thuseitta join their fellow firebrand clergyman Wirathu on the blacklist, after he was banned in January.

Activists have criticised the platform for responding too slowly to reports of malicious posts, with some content being shared by users for more than 48 hours before being removed.

“We can do more, and we have been slow to respond,” admitted Facebook Vice President of Public Policy in Asia-Pacific Simon Milner.

He said Facebook is increasing the number of people working on Myanmar from Singapore and Bangkok, including those who speak the language, although declined to give specific numbers.

Union Minister for Information Dr. Pe Myint received Facebook Vice President Mr. Simon Milner and party at the guest hall of the Ministry of Information in Nay Pyi Taw on June 6.

The representatives of Facebook explained the work conducted by the social media company on improving Facebook’s community norms, policies, usage of violent, vulgar and hate speech, account security of Facebook users from Myanmar and contents.

The Union Minister in return suggested monitoring and controlling content such as rude and vulgar word usage, hate speech, and comments inciting community and religious conflict.

The Union Minister also suggested that those who are good at using Myanmar language should be hired and an office be open in the country.

Soon after the Union Minister has met with Facebook officials, Hla Swe said that Facebook closed Bullet Hla Shwe account with blue mark rating.

“It is right at all. Facebook Team is not fair. Why didn’t Facebook Team close the account insulting Sitagu Sayadaw Dr Nanissara? Ro Nay San Lwin account is also the same matter. This account is posting and sharing fake news and contents. Why did Facebook close my account? I spotted an article posted by Eleven Media Group. I liked it and it is not so bad. I wrote eight words and shared Eleven’s article. About one hour after sharing the article, my account disappeared. I meant my account was not hacked. No warnings came to me. I don’t know how long is my account closed. My account becomes disabling. The answer is clear. The minister met with Facebook Team yesterday and today my account is not present. Who behind the scene makes me quite clear. I don’t want to mention who it is.  I want to mention just who closes my account is very shameful. I am nothing shameful about it.”

Ngar Min Swe Page undermining the prestige of the current government is also closed. This page owner appears online as Hsar Min Swe Page. Hsar Min Swe Page said its page was banned and it saw the government discussing with Facebook Team in the newspaper.

Investigators told the newspaper that breaches were executed in January and February by a division of the Chinese Ministry of State Security, operating out of the Chinese province of Guangdong.

The contractor, which was not named in the report, works for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, based in Newport, Rhode Island. It conducts research and development for submarines and underwater weapons systems.

According to the Post, hackers swiped 614 gigabytes of data that included information relating to sensors, submarine cryptographic systems and a little-known project called Sea Dragon.

The Pentagon has not said much about Sea Dragon, launched in 2012, except that it is aimed at adapting existing military technologies to new uses.

At the Navy’s request, the Post withheld information about the compromised new missile system, but said it was for a supersonic anti-ship missile that could be launched from submarines.

Navy spokesman Commander Bill Speaks declined to confirm the Post report, citing security reasons.

“Evolving cyber threats are serious matters and we are continuously bolstering our cybersecurity culture by focusing on awareness of the cyber threat, and the adequacy of our cyber defenses and information technology capabilities,” he told AFP.

Chinese hackers have for years targeted the US military to steal information and the Pentagon says they have previously swiped crucial data on the new F-35 stealth fighter, the advanced Patriot PAC-3 missile system and other highly sensitive projects.

News of the hack comes amid rising tensions between Beijing and Washington on a range of issues including trade and military matters.

The Pentagon last month pulled its invitation for China to join maritime exercises in the Pacific because of Beijing’s “continued militarization” of the South China Sea.