Curious onlookers hanging around entrance to Sentosa for glimpse of historic Trump-Kim summit

[能田]

                                      (Singapore Today Tuesday 12 June 2018)

  Curious onlookers hanging around entrance to Sentosa

            for glimpse of historic Trump-Kim summit

By Cynthia Choo

Members of the public and media await the motorcade of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un travelling

towards Sentosa for his meeting with US President Donald Trump. Jason Quah/TODAY

Updated 12 June, 2018

SINGAPORE — A small and scattered crowd has started to gather at the road leading to Sentosa on Tuesday (June 12) before noon, hoping to catch a glimpse of US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un leaving the island.

The two leaders are meeting at Capella hotel for the first time on Tuesday morning.

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Among the crowd of around 20 waiting at the side entrance to Vivocity along Sentosa Gateway was a mother and daughter pair from Denmark.

Ms Gitte Mundbjerg, 53 and her daughter Anne-Sophie Mundbjerg, 21, told TODAY they are planning to wait till the two leaders came out.

"Events of this scale never happen in Denmark so it's very exciting for us to be able to witness it here," said Ms Anne-Sophie. The duo, who own an online business, said their family had relocated to Singapore in October last year.

Unlike the Mundbjergs who arrived only at 11am, Mr Jun Osano had been on the summit trail since the morning.

The 47-year-old engineer from the Philippines, who prides himself on his knowledge of the US convoy vehicles, had woken up at 6am to catch a glimpse of the convoy at Cantonement Road, before heading towards the Harbourfront area in the afternoon to wait for the vehicles to exit Sentosa Gateway.

He had been waiting for more than four hours since both leaders entered Sentosa when TODAY spoke to him outside Bay Hotel at noon.

"It's on my bucket list to see Mr Trump's motorcade in person. I'm a fan of the vehicles more than the people, I would study the make up of Mr Trump's motorcade, which vehicles are in the line up and the US secret service, so this is all very fascinating to me," he said.

Earlier in the morning, curious onlookers started gathering as early as 6.30am to catch a glimpse of Mr Trump and Mr Kim's motorcades passing by.

At 7am, TODAY observed at least 50 people lined up along Telok Blangah Road — adjacent to Sentosa Gateway — while around 10 were gathered outside St James.

Among them was an 80-year-old retiree who gave his name only as Mr H. He had reached Sentosa Gateway at 6.30am to catch this "once in a lifetime event".

"We spent a long researching how to catch the two leaders driving in, we studied the police notices and marked out the best spots along the road," said the retiree, who was accompanied by his 44-year-old son.

Mr Trump arrived at the Capella around 8.15am, followed by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un about 30 minutes later.

There was heavy security presence along Sentosa Gateway on Tuesday morning. Three rapid deployment troops and at least 30 police officers were seen on patrol. There were at least three police cars parked in the St James Power Station carpark.

The police officers did not conduct security bag checks on pedestrians walking into the St James area, but were observed screening cars and motorcycles who wanted to enter the carpark.

Maritime patrols by the Republic of Singapore Navy are also underway as part of unprecedented security measures for Sentosa. TODAY counted more than three Police Coast Guard vehicles patrolling waters near the Harbourfront cruise centre.