Explainer: Why Kim Jong Un prefers visiting neighbours on a train

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un used a dark green train to travel to Russia, state media showed on September 12, relying on a slow but specialised form of transportation that the reclusive country’s leaders have used for decades.

Compared to the country’s ageing fleet of planes, bulletproof trains offer a safer and more comfortable space for a large entourage, security guards, food and amenities, and a place to discuss agendas ahead of meetings, a former North Korean official who has been on the train of the North founder Kim Il Sung, Ko Young Hwan, told Reuters.

Since becoming leader in late 2011, Kim has used a train to visit China and Vietnam, as well as his previous trip to Russia to meet Putin in 2019.

I heard that anti-aircraft missiles have been installed on Kim Jong-un’s train recently

Ko Young Hwan

“When he rides a train, he can command the entire country from anywhere, receives all faxes and emails, and access all reports because all communication facilities are available. So, for Kim Jong Un, it can feel as comfortable as his home,” said Ko, Special Advisor to South Korea’s Unification Ministry who defected North Korea in 1991.

“There are carriages carrying security personnel, carriages for senior North Korean officials participating in talks, and carriages carrying two cars of Kim Jong Un. In the past, up until Kim Jong Il’s era, there were reports of (the train) carrying two machine guns to counter a possible aircraft attack. However, I heard that anti-aircraft missiles have been installed on Kim Jong-un’s train recently,” Ko added.

North Korea’s founding leader, Kim Il Sung, Kim’s grandfather, travelled abroad by train regularly during his rule until his death in 1994.

Un’s father died of a reported heart attack in 2011 while on one of his trains

Kim Jong Il relied solely on trains to visit Russia three times, including a 20,000 km (12,427 miles) round trip to Moscow in 2001.

He died of a reported heart attack in late 2011 while on one of his trains and the carriage is on display at his mausoleum.

The train has been at the centre of state propaganda around the ruling Kim family’s embarking on long train journeys to meet ordinary North Koreans across the country.

“The thing that has changed slightly is the interior decoration. In Kim Il Sung’s time, they used a lot of carpets with drawings of orchids and magnolias, but when I saw Kim Jong Un’s train, it mostly had clean marble-like flooring, a bit of decoration on the ceiling, and brighter lights,” Ko said.

“It feels like there’s a generational difference in that.” -REUTERS