Kim Jong Un's armored train: "A sweet home"
Images in Russian and North Korean state media showed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traveling to Russia for a long-awaited meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on an armored train, a method of travel that has been used by the Kim dynasty for decades. Since taking power in 2011, Kim Jong Un has made 10 foreign trips in total to five countries and has traveled by train on several of those occasions, Reuters reported, including to Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, for a summit with the then President of the United States, Donald Trump, in 2019. In April 2019, Kim also traveled by train to the Russian port city of Vladivostok to meet Putin for the first time, the last meeting between the two men so far. "If you travel by train, you can command the entire country from anywhere, receive all faxes and emails, and access all reports because all communication facilities are available. So for Kim Jong Un, you can feel as comfortable as their home," former North Korean official Ko Young Hwan told Reuters news agency on Tuesday. Ahn Byung-min, a South Korean expert on North Korean transportation, told Reuters that the armored trains that have transported the North's leaders over the years have between 10 and 15 carriages each, some of which are reserved exclusively for Kim Jong Un, like a private bedroom, while other carriages carry key members of the leader's entourage as security guards. The green with yellow stripes train that Kim Jong Un was photographed boarding to Russia is the same design that the dictator's late father, Kim Jong Il, appeared to use to visit Russia in 2001, according to Reuters. Russian military commander Konstantin Pulikovsky, who spent time aboard the train with Kim Jong Il during the visit to Russia in 2001, recalled that "it is possible to order any dish from Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and French cuisine." In his memoirs, Pulikovsky said that live lobsters were transported to the train to ensure the availability of fresh seafood, while cases of red wine from Bordeaux and Burgundy were imported from Paris. Even Vladimir Putin's private train "didn't have the comfort of Kim Jong Il's train," he said. Kim Jong Il's train was also described as having "conference rooms, an audience room and bedrooms. Satellite phone connections and flat-screen televisions have been installed so the North Korean leader can be briefed and issue orders," according to a report. report by the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo in 2009. Kim Jong Un's father traveled by train for each of the three occasions he visited Russia. The train was described by North Korean state media as "a sweet home and office" for Kim Jong Il.
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Kim Jong Un's armored train: "A sweet home"
Images in Russian and North Korean state media showed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traveling to Russia for a long-awaited meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on an armored train, a method of travel that has been used by the Kim dynasty for decades. Since taking power in 2011, Kim Jong Un has made 10 foreign trips in total to five countries and has traveled by train on several of those occasions, Reuters reported, including to Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, for a summit with the then President of the United States, Donald Trump, in 2019. In April 2019, Kim also traveled by train to the Russian port city of Vladivostok to meet Putin for the first time, the last meeting between the two men so far. "If you travel by train, you can command the entire country from anywhere, receive all faxes and emails, and access all reports because all communication facilities are available. So for Kim Jong Un, you can feel as comfortable as their home," former North Korean official Ko Young Hwan told Reuters news agency on Tuesday. Ahn Byung-min, a South Korean expert on North Korean transportation, told Reuters that the armored trains that have transported the North's leaders over the years have between 10 and 15 carriages each, some of which are reserved exclusively for Kim Jong Un, like a private bedroom, while other carriages carry key members of the leader's entourage as security guards. The green with yellow stripes train that Kim Jong Un was photographed boarding to Russia is the same design that the dictator's late father, Kim Jong Il, appeared to use to visit Russia in 2001, according to Reuters. Russian military commander Konstantin Pulikovsky, who spent time aboard the train with Kim Jong Il during the visit to Russia in 2001, recalled that "it is possible to order any dish from Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and French cuisine." In his memoirs, Pulikovsky said that live lobsters were transported to the train to ensure the availability of fresh seafood, while cases of red wine from Bordeaux and Burgundy were imported from Paris. Even Vladimir Putin's private train "didn't have the comfort of Kim Jong Il's train," he said. Kim Jong Il's train was also described as having "conference rooms, an audience room and bedrooms. Satellite phone connections and flat-screen televisions have been installed so the North Korean leader can be briefed and issue orders," according to a report. report by the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo in 2009. Kim Jong Un's father traveled by train for each of the three occasions he visited Russia. The train was described by North Korean state media as "a sweet home and office" for Kim Jong Il.
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