On Tuesday, President Donald Trump is set to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore.
While the island nation has already played host to numerous international events like the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and Shangri-La Dialogue, as well as the annual Singapore Grand Prix, this meeting will be a little different.
Due in no small part to the security considerations of the summit, the two leaders will be meeting at the Capella Hotel on the island resort of Sentosa, which is connected to the rest of Singapore by a cable car and causeway. With limited access points, the island can be easily secured.
The Capella hotel will also be secured, with an airport-style X-ray scanner at the entrance, and police officers will reportedly check vehicles entering the premises for bombs.
The island, which is nearly two square miles in size, lies a quarter of a mile away from the southern coast of the main island of Singapore. It features 17 hotels and luxury resorts, private beaches, two golf courses, a casino, a Madame Tussauds museum, a water theme park, Universal Studios Singapore, and the largest Merlion statue. Nearly 20 million people visit the resort each year.
Prior to becoming a resort in 1972, however, the island was a British trading post, military base, and a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Before British rule, the island was used as a trade center for everyone from merchants to pirates, earning it the name Pulau Blakang Mati, which means “island behind death.”
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the current name of Sentosa does not have quite such a dark definition. It fittingly means “peace and tranquility” in Malay.
