Kim Jong Un travels through North Korea and Russia with this armored train

North Korea’s rulers
Luxurious but slow: What is known about Kim Jong Un’s armored train

Kim Jong Un’s father and grandfather traveled with an armored train through North Korea and Eastern Europe. What is known about the unusual vehicle.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traveled to Russia with his armored train to meet President Vladimir Putin. This form of travel has a tradition. Even the grandfather and “eternal president” Kim Il Sung and his son and father of the current head of state Kim Jong Il went on long trips abroad by train during their rule. Kim Jong Il is said to have died on a train at the end of 2011. The former ruler was said to be afraid of flying.

Kim Jong Un, on the other hand, has already traveled abroad by plane – for example to his historic summit with former US President Donald Trump in June 2018, when the topic was the North Korean nuclear weapons program. His private plane “Chammae-1”, a Soviet-made Ilyushin-62, flew to Singapore in 2018 – but Kim was not on board. The North Korean ruler preferred to take an Air China plane that started as a supposed scheduled flight to Beijing, but, according to information from the observation service Flightradar24, changed the flight number in the middle of the route and turned south to Singapore. According to The New York Times, the Kim family has no confidence in the safety of long-haul travel on one of the old Soviet-era passenger planes in use in North Korea.

To the second, ultimately inconclusive summit with Trump in February 2019 in Vietnam, Kim took the bulletproof train again – according to information from the South Korean Ministry of Unification in Seoul, the floor and walls are supposed to withstand explosive attacks, and the windows are bulletproof. Because of the heavy armor, the train reaches a top speed of 60 km/h – even though it is supposed to be pulled by two locomotives. And so a 4,500 kilometer trip like to Vietnam takes about three days – instead of about six hours by plane. Kim Jong Il took on even more: in 2001, it famously took him ten days to get to Moscow for a meeting with Putin.

Kim Jong Un’s armored train

What is known about the train comes from secret service circles, from statements by officials who were able to travel with it, and from rare recordings on North Korean state television. According to the New York Times, there are around 90 high-security train cars available to Kim. A train drives ahead of the train with the ruler, with security guards checking train stations and tracks to prevent an attack on Kim. Behind the train with Kim there is a third train with bodyguards and other staff. From the air, helicopters and planes ensure the safety of the North Korean ruler.

One of the carriages was shown in photos from 2018 with overstuffed pink leather sofas. Other photos, also from the year, show a kind of conference room with a large table. In older footage, Kim Jong Un’s father is seen in a carriage with plush seats, leading a meeting in a dining car and attending a banquet in a carriage paneled with dark wood. In these recordings, the ruler at the time sits at a table filled with food while entertainers appear in tuxedos and evening dresses. “It was possible to order any dish of Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and French cuisine,” wrote Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian official who accompanied the former leader on a trip to Russia in 2011. according to the New York Times. The supplies on board were well stocked with fresh lobster and cases full of red wine from Bordeaux and Burgundy, Pulikowsky reported.

Fine food and beautiful women on board

According to Pulikowsky, Kim Jong Un prefers Swiss cheese, Cristal champagne (a bottle price around 300 to 8,000 euros) and Hennessy cognac. Pulikovsky also reports that Kim Jong Il had a large selection of young women on board with whom he could retreat to private quarters at any time. According to the media, the current ruler is sticking to this tradition.

But work also has to be done on long train journeys: according to the South Korean news site “Chosun” Satellite telephone lines and flat-screen televisions were installed so that the North Korean leader could be informed and give orders. There are also said to be two Mercedes limousines on board the train, with which Kim will be driven from the train station to his actual destination.

Despite its slowness, the train has decisive advantages over an airplane, explains the Ministry for Reunification: In the air, the chances of survival in an attack are significantly lower.

Sources:“BBC”, “New York Times”, “n-tv.de”, “t-online”DPA, “ITV News” on YouTube, “Chosun.com”AFP.