SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un left Pyongyang in his signature green train on Sept 1, on his way to Beijing, relying on a slow but specialised form of transport that the reclusive country’s leaders have used for decades.
Compared with North Korea’s ageing fleet of passenger aircraft, the bulletproof trains offer a safer and more comfortable space for a large entourage, security guards, food and amenities, and a place to discuss agendas ahead of meetings, experts say.
Since becoming the North Korean leader in late 2011, Mr Kim has used a train to visit China, Vietnam and Russia.
What’s inside the trains?
It is unclear how many trains North Korean leaders have used over the years, but Professor Ahn Byung-min, a South Korean expert on North Korean transportation, has said that multiple trains were needed for security reasons.
Prof Ahn said those trains have 10 to 15 carriages each, some of which are used only by the leader, including a bedroom, while others carry security guards and medical staff.
They also usually have space for Mr Kim’s office, communications equipment, a restaurant and carriages for two armoured Mercedes, he added.
State media photos on Sept 2 showed Mr Kim with senior officials taking a cigarette break next to a green carriage emblazoned with gold-coloured crests and trim, and sitting in a wood-panelled office in front of a large gold crest and flanked by the North Korean flag.
On Mr Kim’s desk sat a gold-embossed laptop computer, a bank of telephones, his signature box of cigarettes and bottles with blue or clear liquids. The windows were trimmed with blue-and-gold curtains.
A video released in 2018 by North Korean state TV showed Mr Kim meeting top Chinese officials in a wide train car ringed with pink couches.
In 2020, state TV footage showed Mr Kim riding a train to visit a typhoon-hit area, offering a glimpse of a carriage decorated with flower-shaped lighting and zebra-printed fabric chairs.
In the 2002 book Orient Express, Russian official Konstantin Pulikovsky described a three-week journey to Moscow by Mr Kim Jong Il, the current leader’s father and predecessor.
In that train, cases of Bordeaux and Beaujolais wine were flown in from Paris, as were live lobsters, according to the book.
How does it cross borders?
When Mr Kim Jong Un took the train to Russia, including in 2023 for a summit with President Vladimir Putin, its wheel assemblies had to be reconfigured at a border station because the two countries use different rail gauges, Prof Ahn said.
While there is no such requirement for China, a Chinese locomotive pulls the train once it crosses the border because a local engineer knows the rail system and signals, said Mr Kim Han-tae, a South Korean former train engineer who wrote a book on North Korea’s railways.
To travel to previous summits with Mr Xi, Mr Kim’s specially equipped string of train carriages was usually hauled by matching green DF11Z locomotives, Chinese-made engines sporting the emblem of the state-owned China Railway Corporation, with at least three different serial registration numbers, according to a review of media images.
Prof Ahn noted that the serial numbers were either 0001 or 0002, suggesting China was providing him with engines reserved for the most senior officials.
When Mr Kim travelled across China to his 2019 summit with US President Donald Trump in Vietnam, his train was pulled by a red and yellow locomotive emblazoned with China’s national railway logo.
The train can reach speeds of up to 80kmh on China’s network, compared with a maximum of about 45kmh on North Korea’s tracks, Prof Ahn said.
Who uses the trains?
North Korea’s founding leader Kim Il Sung, Mr Kim’s grandfather, travelled abroad by train regularly during his rule until his death in 1994.
Mr Kim Jong Il relied solely on trains to visit Russia three times, including a 20,000km trip to Moscow in 2001.
He died of a reported heart attack in late 2011 while on one of his trains, and the carriage was later put on display at his mausoleum.
The train has been at the centre of state propaganda, with the ruling Kim family embarking on long train journeys to meet ordinary North Koreans across the country.
In 2022, state television showed Mr Kim Jong Un taking what it termed an “exhaustive train tour” around North Korea to inspect corn crops and promote a “communist utopia”. – REUTERS
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