Inside Kim’s secret train: North Korea leader lets the cameras in as he meets Chinese leader in bullet-proof carriage
First pictures have emerged The 'love train' used by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to meet his Chinese counterpart.
The distinctive green and yellow armoured train that pulled into Beijing on Monday is the same one used by his father Kim Jong-il in May 2000 when he too travelled to Beijing to visit Jiang Zemin, China's leader at the time, the Daily Mail reports.
According to a 2009 report in the South Korean press, the train at the time consisted of about 90 armoured carriages, with two separate trains travelling ahead and behind it to handle security.
Because of its weight, it moves slowly - its average speed is reported to be 37 mph - but inside, it is relatively high-tech and luxurious.
The train is reported to come complete with luxurious seating, dark wood panelling and plentiful supplies of alcohol.
According to an account by Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian official who travelled with Kim Jong-il to Moscow in 2001, the train was stacked with cases of Bordeaux and Beaujolais, which had been flown in from Paris especially.
One Russian official who travelled with Kim Jong-il on the train to Moscow in 2001 said that live lobster and other delicacies were regularly sent to the train as it travelled, the Washington Post reported.
Kim Jong-un has used the train to travel domestically: In video from 2015, he was shown sitting in a stark white conference room on board with a laptop in the background.
It is difficult to know how - if at all - the train has changed from the days of Kim Jong-Il but the likelihood is that it would not be short of food or drink. The older Kim was reputed to enjoy on board banquets and karaoke.
It is often been reported that that the Swiss-educated Kim Jong-un has inherited his father's fondness of the finer things in life, especially Swiss cheese, Cristal champagne and Hennessy cognac.
But while Kim Jong-il was rumoured to hate flying and used the train as an alternative means of travel to China, Russia and Eastern Europe his son is not so squeamish and often travelled abroad by air while getting educated in the West.
In any event, the similarities between the trip in 2000 and Kim Jong-un’s 2018 excursion are hard to miss, The Washington Post has reported.
In both cases, the Kims visited for three days; in both cases, they arrived unannounced on a train; in both cases, they met with the Chinese president and toured Beijing’s technology hub in Zhongguancun; and in both cases, their visit to China took place ahead of a planned summit with South Korea.
The secrecy surrounding Kim Jong-un’s visit to Beijing this week also echoed that of his father’s various trips abroad, with state media announcing the visit only after it was over, presumably for security reasons.
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