TOKYO: When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump hold their summit at an exclusive venue in Singapore, one of the priciest destinations in Asia, they will no doubt run up quite a bill. And if past precedent is any indication, expect Pyongyang to pay as little of it as possible.
Speculation over how North Korea will handle the costs for Kim’s June 12 meeting with Trump has taken off after a Washington Post report cited two anonymous US officials suggesting the Trump administration has been “seeking a discreet way” to help pay Kim’s hotel bill.
The report suggested host nation Singapore might take care of it.
But what exactly needs to be paid for isn’t yet clear.
Sure there are the costs of summit venue and the hotels, with one reported option, the Fullerton, coming with a $6,000-a-night price tag for its presidential suite. But that would hardly break the North Korean bank.
While Kim could decide to stay the night, or maybe even two, he might also be in a hurry to get back home, in which case the North wouldn’t need a room so much as a base camp. North Korea has an embassy in Singapore, but that likely wouldn’t be good enough to meet the logistical and security demands of a full-on summit.
The North may want to send a large delegation to accompany Kim and provide its own security. If there are any feelers going out about cost-sharing, that’s a likely topic. But it would be more of a sweetener than a necessity.
Whatever the venue, it’s debatable why an outside party would need to pay.
North Korea’s government, which is no stranger to hosting lavish events like military parades and party congresses of its own, has ample funds to cover important meetings for Kim.
While highly speculative — Kim is even more averse to divulging details about his personal wealth than Trump — the North Korean leader is believed by some foreign experts to be worth well over $1 billion and have access to billions dollars more thanks to the full backing of his country.
But as history has shown, summits with the Kim family don’t come cheap.
Seoul reportedly spent somewhere in the range of $5 million to cover the costs of President Moon Jae-in’s first summit with Kim in April — a day-long affair that was held in publicly owned buildings on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone.
And though this falls in a category all of its own, former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung’s administration secretly paid $500 million to just to get Kim Jong Un’s father to agree to the first-ever North-South Korea summit in 2000.
The South Korean president won that year’s Nobel Peace Prize, before the payment was made public. One of his aides was convicted and went to prison.
Hosting North Koreans at sports events can also have extra costs attached.
South Korea paid $2.5 million to cover the costs of more than 400 North Koreans, only 22 of whom were athletes, at the Pyeongchang Games in February.
The Olympics were the first big step of Kim’s ongoing diplomatic campaign, which he announced with great fanfare in January. But they weren’t the first time Seoul had shelled out in the name of Korean unity.
For the Asian Games in Busan in 2002, it gave about $1.3 million, then $836,000 for a Universiade in 2003 and another $385,000 for the Asian Games in 2014.
US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert has denied the US would pay for North Korea in Singapore and said Washington wasn’t asking anyone else to, either.
In keeping with normal practice, Singapore, as the host nation, will have to put out for general security and various other expenses.
Singapore announced Monday that it was declaring part of its city center a “special event area” from June 10 to 14 for the summit. The designation will allow for greater security in the area, which is near the US Embassy as well as several hotels, including the Shangri-Louisiana
The Shangri-La has been mentioned as a possible venue for the talks due to its experience as the site of an annual security conference that draws defense officials from around the globe.
Singapore’s Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen on Saturday confirmed the country would foot some costs, while steering clear of the details or whether Pyongyang or Washington had made any specifics requests.
“We want to contribute in our small way so that this summit can occur,” he told reporters.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has also offered to chip in a share of the million dollars it was awarded for winning the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
At Trump-Kim summit, don’t expect North Korea to foot the bill
At Trump-Kim summit, don’t expect North Korea to foot the bill
- The North may want to send a large delegation to accompany Kim and provide its own security
- Seoul reportedly spent somewhere in the range of $5 million to cover the costs of President Moon Jae-in’s first summit with Kim in April
The world begins welcoming 2025 with light shows, embraces and ice plunges
- More than a million people gathered at the Sydney Harbor for the celebration
- Much of Japan has shut down ahead of the nation’s biggest holiday
WELLINGTON, New Zealand: From Sydney to Mumbai to Nairobi, communities around the world began welcoming 2025 with spectacular light shows, embraces and ice plunges.
Auckland became the first major city to celebrate, as thousands thronged downtown or climbed the city’s ring of volcanic peaks for a fireworks vantage point. A light display recognized Indigenous people.
Countries in the South Pacific Ocean were the first to ring in the New Year, with midnight in New Zealand striking 18 hours before the ball drop in Times Square in New York.
Conflict muted acknowledgements of the start of 2025 in places like the Middle East, Sudan and Ukraine.
Earliest fireworks
Fireworks blasted off the Sydney Harbor Bridge and across the bay. More than a million Australians and others gathered at iconic Sydney Harbor for the celebration. British pop star Robbie Williams led a singalong with the crowd.
The celebration also featured Indigenous ceremonies and performances that acknowledged the land’s first people.
Asia prepares for Year of the Snake
Much of Japan shut down ahead of the nation’s biggest holiday, as temples and homes underwent a thorough cleaning.
The upcoming Year of the Snake in the Asian zodiac is heralded as one of rebirth — alluding to the reptile’s shedding skin. Other places in Asia will mark the Year of the Snake later, with the Lunar New Year.
In South Korea, celebrations were cut back or canceled during a period of national mourning following Sunday’s crash of a Jeju Air flight in Muan that killed 179 people.
In Thailand’s Bangkok, shopping malls competed for crowds with live musical acts and fireworks shows. A fireworks display in Indonesia’s Jakarta featured 800 drones.
China and Russia exchange goodwill
Chinese state media covered an exchange of New Year’s greetings between leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a reminder of growing closeness between two leaders who face tensions with the West.
Xi told Putin their countries will “always move forward hand in hand,” the official Xinhua News Agency said.
China has maintained ties and robust trade with Russia since the latter invaded Ukraine in 2022, helping to offset Western sanctions and attempts to isolate Putin.
Seaside celebrations and beyond
In India, thousands of revelers in the financial hub of Mumbai flocked to the city’s bustling promenade facing the Arabian Sea. In Sri Lanka, people gathered at Buddhist temples to light oil lamps and incense sticks and pray.
In Dubai, thousands attended a fireworks show at the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper. And in Nairobi, Kenya, scattered fireworks were heard as midnight approached.
A Holy Year begins
Rome’s traditional New Year’s Eve festivities have an additional draw: the start of Pope Francis’ Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration projected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to the Eternal City in 2025.
On Tuesday, Francis will celebrate a vespers at St. Peter’s Basilica, followed by Mass on Wednesday, when he is expected to again appeal for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Jan. 1 is a day of obligation for Catholics, marking the Solemnity of Mary.
Paris recaptures the Olympic spirit
Paris capped a momentous 2024 with its traditional countdown and fireworks extravaganza on the Champs-Elysées. The city’s emblematic Arc de Triomphe monument was turned into a giant tableau for a light show that celebrated the city’s landmarks and the passage of time, with whirring clocks.
“Paris is a party,” proclaimed Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
The Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games hosted in the French capital from July to September had transformed the city into a site of joy, fraternity and astonishing sporting achievements.
Frank and Rowena Klar from San Francisco visited the French capital to celebrate 31 years together. “If you start it big, we think we’re going to have a great year,” he said.
Wintry weather, for good and bad
London rang in the New Year with a pyrotechnic display along the River Thames. With a storm bringing bitter weather to other parts of the United Kingdom, however, festivities in Edinburgh, Scotland, were canceled.
But in Switzerland and some other places, people embraced the cold, stripping and plunging into the water in freezing temperatures.
Rio expects 2 million revelers
Rio de Janeiro will throw Brazil’s main New Year’s Eve bash on Copacabana Beach, with ferries offshore bearing 12 straight minutes of fireworks. Thousands of tourists in cruise ships will witness the show up close.
More than 2 million people were expected at the Copacabana, hoping to squeeze into concerts by superstar Brazilian artists such as pop singer Anitta and Grammy-award winner Caetano Veloso.
American traditions, old and new
In New York City, the organization managing Times Square has tested its famous ball drop and inspected 2025 numerals, lights and thousands of crystals as part of a tradition going back to 1907. This year’s celebration will include musical performances by TLC, Jonas Brothers, Rita Ora and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
Las Vegas’ pyrotechnic show will be on the Strip, with 340,000 people anticipated as fireworks are launched from the rooftops of casinos. Nearby, the Sphere venue will display for the first time countdowns to midnight in different time zones.
In Pasadena, California, Rose Parade spectators were camping out and hoping for prime spots. And some 200,000 people were flocking to a country music party in Nashville, Tennessee.
American Samoa will be among the last to welcome 2025, a full 24 hours after New Zealand.
US imposes sanctions on Russian and Iranian groups over disinformation targeting American voters
- Authorities say the center used AI to quickly manufacture fake videos about American candidates created scores of fake news websites designed to look legitimate and even paid US web companies to create pro-Russian content
- Russian and Iranian officials have rejected claims that they sought to influence the outcome of the 2024 election
WASHINGTON: The United States has imposed sanctions on two groups linked to Iranian and Russian efforts to target American voters with disinformation ahead of this year’s election.
Treasury officials announced the sanctions Tuesday, alleging that the two organizations sought to stoke divisions among Americans before November’s vote. US intelligence has accused both governments of spreading disinformation, including fake videos, news stories and social media posts, designed to manipulate voters and undermine trust in US elections.
“The governments of Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,” Bradley T. Smith, Treasury’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.
Authorities said the Russian group, the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise, oversaw the creation, financing and dissemination of disinformation about American candidates, including deepfake videos created using artificial intelligence.
In addition to the group itself, the new sanctions apply to its director, who authorities say worked closely with Russian military intelligence agents also overseeing cyberattacks and sabotage against the West.
Authorities say the center used AI to quickly manufacture fake videos about American candidates created scores of fake news websites designed to look legitimate and even paid US web companies to create pro-Russian content.
The Iranian group, the Cognitive Design Production Center, is a subsidiary of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, US officials said, which the United States has designated a foreign terrorist organization. Officials say the center worked since at least 2023 to incite political tensions in the United States.
US intelligence agencies have blamed the Iranian government for seeking to encourage protests in the US over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Iran also has been accused of hacking into the accounts of several top current and former US officials, including senior members of Donald Trump’s campaign.
In the months ahead of the election, US intelligence officials said Russia, Iran and China all sought to undermine confidence in US democracy. They also concluded that Russia sought to prop up the ultimate victor Trump, who has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggested cutting funds to Ukraine and repeatedly criticized the NATO military alliance.
Iran, meanwhile, sought to oppose Trump’s candidacy, officials said. The president-elect’s first administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act prompting Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.
Russian and Iranian officials have rejected claims that they sought to influence the outcome of the 2024 election.
“Russia has not and does not interfere with the internal affairs of other countries,” a spokesperson for Russia’s embassy in Washington wrote in an email Tuesday.
A message left with officials from Iran was not immediately returned Tuesday.
Woman burned to death in New York subway is identified as 57-year-old from New Jersey
- The woman, Debrina Kawam, had worked at the pharmaceutical giant Merck in from 2000 until 2002, but her life at some point took a rocky turn
- Sebastian Zapeta , 33, has been indicted on murder and arson charges in her Dec. 22 death
NEW YORK: The woman who died after being set on fire in a New York subway train this month was a 57-year-old from New Jersey, police announced Tuesday.
The woman, Debrina Kawam, had worked at the pharmaceutical giant Merck in from 2000 until 2002, but her life at some point took a rocky turn. She had briefly been in a New York homeless shelter after moving to the city recently, the Department of Social Services said. It did not say when.
Police had an address for Kawam in Toms River, a community on the Jersey Shore, and authorities said they notified her family about her Dec. 22 death. The Associated Press left messages Tuesday for possible relatives.
“Hearts go out to the family — a horrific incident to have to live through,” Mayor Eric Adams said at an unrelated news briefing.
It came hours before another harrowing act of violence on the nation’s busiest subway system.
A 45-year-old man was pushed onto the tracks ahead of an oncoming train at a station under Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood about 1:30 p.m., police said. The man was taken to a hospital in critical condition, and police said they had a person of interest in custody.
Personal safety in the subways is generally comparable to safety in the city as a whole. But life-threatening crimes such as stabbings and shoves spread alarm about the trains that have carried more than 1 billion riders over the course of this year.
Police figures show major crimes on subways were down this year through November, compared with the same period last year, but killings rose from five to nine.
In Kawam’s case, prosecutors have said she was asleep on a subway train that was stopped at a station in Brooklyn’s Coney Island when her clothes were set ablaze by a stranger, Sebastian Zapeta.
Zapeta, 33, allegedly fanned the flames with a shirt, engulfing her in the blaze, before sitting on a platform bench and watching as she burned.
Identifying the victim proved to be a challenge, and authorities said Friday that they were still using forensics and video surveillance to trace her.
Zapeta has been indicted on murder and arson charges. He has not entered a plea, and his lawyer has declined to comment outside court.
Federal immigration officials say Zapeta is from Guatemala and entered the US illegally. An address for him given by police matches a shelter that provides housing and substance abuse support.
Zapeta was arrested after police circulated images of a suspect and received a tip from a group of high school students.
Prosecutors have said Zapeta subsequently told police that he was the man in surveillance photos and videos of the fire being ignited, but that he drinks a lot of liquor and does not know what happened.
He is currently jailed, and his next court date is Jan. 7.
While it is not clear why Kawam was asleep in a subway car, New York’s subways often unofficially function as a refuge for homeless people. In theory, legal settlements give homeless individuals a broad right to shelter in the city, but some turn to the trains if they are unable to stay in shelters or fearful about safety in them.
On the morning of the fire, temperatures were around 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 6.5 Celsius) and had been below freezing for 24 hours, according to data from nearby Brooklyn weather stations.
“No matter where she lived, that should not have happened,” the mayor said.
The social services department said it would amplify its efforts to reach and help homeless people on streets and subways and encourage them to use shelters.
Ivory Coast asks French troops to leave, the latest African country to do so
- France has suffered similar setbacks in several West African countries in recent years, including Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast: Ivory Coast announced on Tuesday that French troops will leave the country after a decadeslong military presence, the latest African nation to downscale military ties with its former colonial power.
Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara said the pullout would begin in January 2025. France has had up to 600 troops in Ivory Coast.
“We have decided on the concerted and organized withdrawal of French forces in Ivory Coast,” he said, adding that the military infantry battalion of Port Bouét that is run by the French army will be handed over to Ivorian troops.
Outtara’s announcement follows that of other leaders across West Africa, where France’s militaries are being asked to leave. Analysts have described the requests for French troops to leave Africa as part of the wider structural transformation in the region’s engagement with Paris.
France has suffered similar setbacks in several West African countries in recent years, including Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso, where French troops that have been on the ground for many years have been kicked out.
Several West African nations — including coup-hit Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger — have recently asked the French to leave. Among them are also most recently Senegal, and Chad, considered France’s most stable and loyal partner in Africa.
The downscaling of military ties comes as France has been making efforts to revive its waning political and military influence on the continent by devising a new military strategy that would sharply reduce its permanent troop presence in Africa.
France has now been kicked out of more than 70 percent of African countries where it had a troop presence since ending its colonial rule. The French remain only in Djibouti, with 1,500 soldiers, and Gabon, with 350 troops.
Analysts have described the developments as part of the wider structural transformation in the region’s engagement with Paris amid growing local sentiments against France, especially in coup-hit countries.
After expelling French troops, military leaders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have moved closer to Russia, which has mercenaries deployed across the Sahel who have been accused of abuses against civilians.
However, the security situation has worsened in those countries, with increasing numbers of extremist attacks and civilian deaths from both armed groups and government forces.
Ukraine must fight in 2025 on ‘battlefield’ and ‘negotiating table’: Zelensky
- The Ukrainian leader’s address caps a difficult year for the war-battered country that has been fending off a better-resourced Russian army for nearly three years
KYIV, Ukraine: President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said that Ukraine would need to fight next year to bolster its position both militarily and ahead of any talks to end Russia’s three-year-long invasion.
The Ukrainian leader’s address caps a difficult year for the war-battered country that has been fending off a better-resourced Russian army for nearly three years.
The country lost seven times more territory to Russia this year than in 2023, according to an AFP analysis, and is facing the possibility of a reduction in US military and political backing when Donald Trump takes over the White House.
“And every day in the coming year, I, and all of us, must fight for a Ukraine that is strong enough. Because only such a Ukraine is respected and heard. Both on the battlefield and at the negotiating table,” Zelensky said in an address to the nation.
“May 2025 be our year. The year of Ukraine. We know that peace will not be given to us as a gift, but we will do everything to stop Russia and end the war. This is what each of us wishes for,” he added.
US President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled almost $6 billion in military and budget aid for Ukraine on Monday in a race to support Kyiv before Trump takes office in January.
The Republican has said he will end the conflict in “24 hours” once in power, raising fears in Ukraine that it will be forced to give up all the land the Kremlin currently controls in exchange for peace.
“I have no doubt that the new American president is willing and capable of achieving peace and ending Putin’s aggression,” Zelensky said in his address.
In his New Year’s Eve address on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not explicitly mention the war in Ukraine but praised Russia’s soldiers for their “courage and bravery.”
