BEIJING, Feb 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s
armoured train chugged across China on Sunday 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 reached 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 Wednesday and Thursday.
His departure from the Pyongyang railway station was confirmed by North
Korea’s official KCNA news agency.
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.
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.
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.
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 journey.
Several sources said Kim was expected to arrive in Vietnam by train,
stopping at the Dong Dang train station near the China border, then driving
to Hanoi.
Vietnam previously announced the unprecedented move of closing that 170-kilometre stretch of road on Tuesday between 6:00 am and 2:00 pm —
suggesting Kim could travel on the road between those hours.
Rail travel is a family tradition that was started by Kim’s grandfather,
the North’s founder Kim Il Sung, who travelled to Eastern Europe for his
longest train ride in 1984. His late father, Kim Jong Il, travelled all the
way to Moscow by train in 2001. — NNN-AGENCIES