Kim Jong-un — North Korea’s ruthless regime leader who’s reportedly in constant fear of an attack on his life whenever he steps foot outside his home country — got the U.S. press kicked out of his hotel after summit organizers realized it had double booked the space, The Washington Post reported.
During his two-day summit in Vietnam with President Donald Trump to discuss denuclearization, Kim is booked to stay at the Melia hotel in the heart of Hanoi, Vietnam, the same venue that the White House reserved as the filing center for American media outlets traveling with Trump. Before Kim arrived at the hotel on Tuesday, the media was notified that their filing center had changed to a different location, prompting a headache for members of the television press who reportedly spent several weeks getting equipment shipped to and set up at the Melia.
Reporters who were booked to stay at the hotel were not removed, but the media was told they couldn’t do live shots at the Kim location, a person with knowledge of the situation told the Post.
When Kim arrived at the Melia, reporters were still gathered in the hotel, having only been recently notified of the location change, according to the Post. The scene then delved into chaos as North Korean officials demanded Vietnamese security officers tell the journalists they couldn’t even look at Kim, let alone take photos or videos of the regime leader, according to the Post and Bloomberg.
Security forces prohibited us from taking pictures from inside the hotel though we could see (state?) camera rolling on him as his entourage came thru. Guards were literally right up on us saying no cameras.
— Margaret Talev (@margarettalev) February 26, 2019
Read the Post’s full report here.
