SEOUL, South Korea. Reports of Kim Jong Un’s potential visit to Russia are sparking interest in the traditional mode of transportation used by North Korean leaders: luxurious armored trains that have been an enduring symbol of the regime’s isolation. This trip, which would mark Kim’s first foreign travel since the onset of the pandemic, could see him meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, possibly to discuss North Korean arms sales, aimed at replenishing Russian reserves depleted by its conflict with Ukraine.
According to U.S. reports, the proposed meeting location is Vladivostok in eastern Russia, where the two leaders first convened in April 2019, with Kim making the journey aboard his distinctive green-and-yellow train. Putin is expected in Vladivostok for the annual Eastern Economic Forum, held from Sunday to Wednesday.
The focus of media attention is whether Kim will undertake the arduous 20-hour train journey once more, accompanied by his reportedly opulent train. This luxury stands in stark contrast to the harsh living conditions faced by most North Koreans.
Kim’s father, the famously flight-averse Kim Jong Il, made around a dozen international trips during his 17-year rule, almost exclusively by train, and North Korean state media reported his death from a heart attack during a train trip in 2011. An account published in 2002 by Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian official who accompanied Kim Jong Il on a three-week trip to Moscow, revealed that the train carried expensive French wine, and passengers enjoyed fresh lobster and pork barbecue.
The primary feature of these trains is security. South Korean media reports suggest that North Korea deploys 90 special carriages and operates three trains concurrently when a leader travels: one in advance to inspect the rails, the second for the leader and immediate entourage, and a third for additional staff. These trains are equipped with advanced communication equipment and flat-screen TVs to facilitate communication and briefings.
These trains hold immense symbolic importance, with a life-size mock-up of one of the carriages on permanent display at a mausoleum on the outskirts of Pyongyang, where the embalmed bodies of Kim Jong Il and his father, Kim Il Sung, are enshrined.
Kim Jong Un, aged 39, has utilized the family’s armored train for previous meetings with leaders like Putin, Xi Jinping, and former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018 and 2019. However, unlike his father, he occasionally opts for air travel, likely due to his education in Switzerland, where he is believed to have flown frequently during his teenage years.
In 2018, Kim made his first public foreign trip by air when he flew to the Chinese city of Dalian to meet with Xi Jinping. This marked the first time a North Korean leader had traveled abroad by air since Kim Il Sung’s flight to the Soviet Union in 1986. Kim’s official plane, known as “Chammae-1” after North Korea’s national bird, is a modified version of the Soviet-made IL-62. South Korean media reports indicate that it can carry about 200 people, with a maximum range of approximately 9,200 kilometers (5,700 miles), although it is rumored to have never flown that far.
Putin, too, has embraced armored train travel since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, eschewing airplanes.
Kim’s previous meeting with Putin involved a day-long journey from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, along the country’s aging railways on the eastern coast, culminating in crossing a river that forms the border with Russia.
Some analysts remain skeptical that another meeting during the Eastern Economic Forum will occur since Kim and his predecessors have favored standalone summitry on rare foreign trips. Kim visited China four times from 2018 to 2019 to meet Xi, with two trips by train and two on his jet. In June 2018, he borrowed a Chinese plane for his summit with Trump in Singapore, reportedly due to safety concerns with his own aircraft. For another meeting with Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, Kim opted for his train, embarking on a two-and-a-half-day journey.
Since closing North Korea’s borders in early 2020 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, Kim has not met any foreign leaders. A potential second trip to Russia by Kim could signal a resumption of summit-driven diplomacy and may be followed by a visit to China for a meeting with Xi Jinping, according to Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in South Korea.
Si Venus L Peñaflor ay naging editor-in-chief ng Newsworld, isang lokal na pahayagan ng Laguna. Publisher din siya ng Daystar Gazette at Tutubi News Magazine. Siya ay isa ring pintor at doll face designer ng Ninay Dolls, ang unang Manikang Pilipino. Kasali siya sa DesignCrowd sa rank na #305 sa 640,000 graphic designers sa buong daigdig. Kasama din siya sa unang Local TV Broadcast sa Laguna na Beyond Manila. Aktibong kasapi siya ng San Pablo Jaycees Senate bilang isang JCI Senator.
