an update from Singapore: the press was banned from the Capella hotel, where the U.S. delegation is staying, but I managed to get in by going straight to the hotel bar and appearing to be a tourist 1/ 
After drinking a hibiscus iced tea at the bar, I eventually walked back into the hotel lobby and stumbled upon the US-DRPK team leaders Joe Hagin and Kim Chang Son (Kim Jong Un’s de facto chief of staff). 2/
Then I introduced myself to Joe Hagin, talked briefly, and snapped a few photos of the North Korean delegation. Hagin said the two sides were still trying to determine a venue. Then things got a little crazy. 3/
After seeing me talking to Hagin, the hotel staff freaked out, and demanded my phone … or else. “Shall we call security? … That’s a violation of guest policy.” I said no, I won’t surrender the phone and I’m leaving anyway. 4/
So I start walking out of the hotel, and one of the hotel staffers keeps following me asking for my phone. And then a guard starts following me. He says "I will call for police. Do you want to cooperate with me?" 5/
So me in the guard are in this awkward back and forth, but he's keeping his distance, and I keep walking to leave the premises (a long walk because the hotel's quarters are vast). 6/
And once I finally leave the hotel's premises, the guard stops at the edge. I wave down a cab, hope in, write to my editor, and file this story. The end! Thanks for reading washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pac…
Because some people asked about the ethics of this: When I walked up to the hotel, they said, “can I help you sir?” and I just said I’m headed to the bar (and I was). I didn’t tell them I’m a tourist, or that I’m not a journalist. I left it up to them to decide
I think it's fair to say there may have been some white privilege here in the sense that the current press corps covering the summit planning in Singapore is almost uniformly Asian, so I was perhaps more plausibly a tourist in the eyes of the hotel staff
Lastly, I very candidly introduced myself to Joe Hagin as a reporter with the Washington Post. He reacted in a friendly way but he was of course brief (he was on his way to a meeting). It was the hotel staff that reacted quite angrily.
