BEIJING (AFP) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s armored train chugged across China yesterday as he headed to his highly anticipated second summit with US President Donald Trump in Vietnam.
Emulating his late father and grandfather, who took epic train trips when they were leaders, Kim set off on the long journey from Pyongyang the other day, with a military honor guard seeing him off in the North Korean capital.
His departure from the Pyongyang railway station was confirmed by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency, with official photos showing him waving from the train for what could be a 60-hour journey to Vietnam.
The train crossed the border city of Dandong later that day, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency and the specialist outlet NK News, but its route remained a tightly-held secret.
The train’s crossing into China follows days of speculation over Kim’s travel plans, as his team gathered in Hanoi ahead of the talks expected next Wednesday and Thursday.
Accompanying the North Korean leader was right-hand man and top general Kim Yong Chol, who met with Trump in the White House last month, along with several other top dignitaries, KCNA said.
Security was tight before the train’s arrival in Dandong, with police cordoning off the border bridge area with tape and metal barriers, and leading an AFP journalist out of the area. A hotel facing the bridge was closed for impromptu renovations last Saturday.
”The train is long and crossed the bridge slower than the tourist train, but it’s definitely him, there’s a lot of police presence,” an unidentified source told NK News.
Windows on the train were blacked out, the source said, with only headlights turned on as it crossed.
The train usually takes 13 hours to reach Beijing, but there were no signs of heightened security around the railway station, indicating that the train likely bypassed the Chinese capital on the nearly 4,000-kilometer journey to Vietnam.
Kim has met Chinese President Xi Jinping four times in the past year, briefing his country’s sole major ally before and after his historic summits with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
The North Korean leader, who last met Xi in January, could be saving their next meeting for his trip back to Pyongyang to debrief the Chinese leader.
Trump and Kim met in June in Singapore, producing a vaguely worded agreement on denuclearization, but progress has since stalled, with the two sides disagreeing over what the agreement meant.
Observers say tangible progress is needed in Hanoi to avoid the talks being dismissed as a publicity stunt.
