President Kim Jong Un is traveling to Beijing for a massive military parade on Wednesday aboard his iconic armoured green train, a mode of transport that has become synonymous with both his dynasty and North Korea’s secretive ways.
The train has long been a symbol of intrigue, carrying generations of the Kim family across the country and on rare international trips.
North Korea’s state media, Rodong Sinmun, confirmed early Tuesday that Kim’s train had crossed the border into China.
Photos showed him smiling on board, seated at a wooden table with a North Korean flag behind him.
Senior officials, including Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, were traveling alongside him, according to the country’s foreign ministry.
Kim’s father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, reportedly disliked flying and relied heavily on the train, Reuters noted.
In one notable instance in 2002, Russian state media displayed images of the green train with yellow striping when Kim Jong Il visited Russia during a brief period of relaxed sanctions that allowed greater engagement with the outside world.
Both Kim’s father and grandfather were known for hosting lavish dinners abroad. Russian official Konstantin Pulikovsky wrote in 2002 that the train “carried cases of Bordeaux and Beaujolais wine from Paris, and that passengers feasted on live lobster and pork barbecue.”
That short-lived era of openness ended quickly as international sanctions tightened in 2003. Today, reports indicate widespread poverty and malnutrition throughout the isolated nation.
The train itself is famously slow-moving and heavily secured, traveling at an average speed of 60 kilometers per hour (about 37 mph), according to a 2009 report in South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo.
It contains conference rooms, an audience chamber, and bedrooms, and is equipped with satellite phone connections and flat-screen televisions.
During Kim Jong Il’s time, some 20 stations were reportedly built specifically for the family train.
While Kim has occasionally used planes and private jets, he has repeatedly relied on the train for international travel. His last trip abroad, a 2023 visit to Russia’s Far East to meet Vladimir Putin, featured polished wooden floors and an ornately decorated white doorway, according to state media photos.
Footage released in 2022 showed Kim working in his train office and relaxing on board while smoking a cigarette in a short-sleeved shirt, Yonhap news agency reported.
During a 2018 visit to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping, state media captured Chinese officials boarding the train, with delegations holding talks on two rows of pink couches.
Beyond international trips, the train has played a prominent role in domestic propaganda, with the Kim family using long journeys to meet ordinary North Koreans, Reuters reported.
A life-sized model of one of the train’s carriages is displayed in a mausoleum outside Pyongyang, where the remains of Kim’s father and grandfather are kept.
