BEIJING, China (NNN-AGENCIES) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s armoured train chugged across China on Sunday (Feb 24) 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 on Saturday.
The train crossed the border city of Dandong later that day and was expected to reach Beijing on Sunday morning, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency and the specialist outlet NK News.
The train’s crossing into China follows days of speculation over Kim’s secretive travel plans, as his team gathered in Hanoi ahead of the talks expected next Wednesday and Thursday.
His departure from the Pyongyang railway station was confirmed by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency, but the Chinese side has yet to report on what could be a 60-hour journey to Vietnam.
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 riverfront some 100 metres (yards) from the bridge with tape and metal barriers, and leading an AFP journalist out of the area.
A hotel facing the bridge was closed for impromptu renovations on 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.
EPIC JOURNEY?
Kim has previously travelled in his olive green train to Beijing and may stop in the Chinese capital, meeting President Xi Jinping as he did prior to his historic meetings with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in last year.
Or he could save the meeting for his return trip to debrief his country’s sole major ally.
Trump and Kim met in June in Singapore, producing a vaguely worded agreement on denuclearisation, 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.
Kim travelled to Singapore last year on a plane lent by Beijing, and it remained unclear whether he would ride all the way to Hanoi by rail – a nearly 4,000-kilometre (2,500-mile) journey.