What Kim Jong-un’s slow and luxurious armored train is like in which he traveled to Russia for his meeting with Putin

The leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-unarrived in Russia this Tuesday for a long-awaited meeting with the president Vladimir Putin. The trip was made by train, as in 2019, when she arrived in the Russian city of Vladivostok in what was his last trip abroad.

Kim left on Sunday Pyongyang on his private train, accompanied by an important entourage of “key executives from the party, government and armed forces agencies.”

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On Monday, North Korea and Russia They confirmed the meeting that the leaders of both countries will hold, but did not detail the exact date or place.

This photo taken and released by Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment on September 12, 2023 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un getting off the train car at Khasan train station. (AFP). (HANDOUT/)

At the time of Kim’s arrival to RussiaPutin was in Vladivostok participating in an economic forum.

Both the United States and several analysts believe that the summit between Kim and Putin seeks to seal an arms sales agreement, in a context in which Russian troops appear to be stagnant in their war they are fighting in Ukraine.

Experts say Russia wants artillery shells and anti-tank missiles from North Korea for the war in Ukraine in exchange for advanced technology for satellites and nuclear submarines and food aid for the country. Kim Jong-un.

Kim Jong-un upon arrival at a station in the Russian border town of Khasan on April 24, 2019. (Photo by Alexander SAFRONOV / Primorsky Krai Administration Press Service / AFP). (ALEXANDER SAFRONOV/)

In 2019, Kim’s last trip abroad was to Vladivostokfor his first summit with Putin after the collapse of nuclear disarmament talks between North Korea and the United States, then governed by donald trump.

Kim’s train trip to Russia in 2019. (AFP).

At this point, it is worth describing what the train that Kim uses is like for several of his trips both outside and inside the country, and why he most often opts for that means of transportation.

This It is Kim Jong-un’s tenth trip abroad since he took power in 2011.. His previous visits occurred between 2018 and 2019.

Kimjust like his father Kim Jong-il and his grandfather Kim Il-sungprefers to travel in a luxury armored train. Of his nine previous trips abroad, four were by train, three by plane and two by car.

Kim Jong-un receives a bouquet of flowers from a Chinese girl upon his arrival at the Beijing train station. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / KCNA VIA KNS / AFP). (KCNA VIA KNS/)

The current leader of North Korea used the train in March 2018 to travel to Beijingthe capital of Chinain what was his first trip abroad.

Kim Jong-un arrives at the Dong Dang train station, Lang Son province, Vietnam, on February 26, 2019. (Photo by AFP). (-/)

Then in 2019 Kim traveled by train to Hanoicapital of Vietnam, for his second summit with his American counterpart Donald Trump. The journey lasted about 60 hours.

The train of Kim It is green with a yellow line. It has 21 cars.

It has a red carpeted ramp by which the supreme leader can get on and off the train.

Was made in Pyongyang and it is fully armored, from the windows to the floor, to protect it from gunshots and explosives, details AFP.

It has an average speed of less than 60 kilometers per hour. The shielding bullet proof each car makes it much heavier and slower than a conventional train.

As the AFP agency recalls, in 2001, the father of Kim It took 24 days to go and return from Pyongyang to Moscow, a journey of about 20,000 km.

Some testimonies and audiovisual material show that the train serves imported french wine and has pink leather seatsaccording to Business Insider.

One of Kim’s train cars. (KCNA).

Kim Jong-un in a train meeting room in 2015. (Video capture).

There are also meeting rooms, flat-screen TVs, laptops, and bedrooms.

Konstantin Pulikovskya Russian official who traveled on the train with Kim Jong-il In the early 2000s, he said he saw on the train red wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy and silver chopsticks.

“On board you could order any dish from Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and French cuisine,” Pulikovsky said.

Kim Jong-il and Konstantin Pulikovsky near Vladivostok in July 2001. (Igor Kochetkov/AP).

According to South Korean intelligence reports collected by BBC Mundo, Kim Jong-un has up to 90 armored cars at his disposal.

Furthermore, some diplomats who have traveled on the train said that there are wagons in which armored cars are transported.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry has also said that The train has “assault weapons and a helicopter for emergencies.”

Said ministry assured that Kim He prefers to travel by train because it offers much higher security conditions than a plane, where “the chances of survival are considerably reduced” in the event of an attack.

Kim Jong-un’s train in Beijing, China. (Reuters).

It can turn back in case of unforeseen events and its itineraries are “more difficult to anticipate” than those of an airplane.

During the trip to Hanoi, Kim He tightened security measures by deploying military forces along the route.

According to Seoul, in each of Kim’s journeys three trains are used that travel together: One is security, where at least 100 agents are in charge of inspecting the tracks and stations through which the railway passes, in order to detect bombs and other types of threats. The North Korean leader is in the middle. While in the third the bodyguards and some supplies are transferred, BBC Mundo indicated.

Source: Elcomercio