Thread: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un travelled to China on an armoured train.

Police officers keep watch over North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's train at Beijing railway station.


North Korean leader Kim Jong-un travelled to China on an armoured train his father used for lavish parties


When North Korea's leaders need to travel, they have a train that is unlike any other.

The arrival in Beijing of the deep green train with yellow piping used exclusively by the ruling Kim family generated a lot of speculation before
it was confirmed it had carried leader Kim Jong-un on his first trip outside of North Korea since taking power upon the death of his father,
Kim Jong-il, in December 2011.


Former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il waves from the window of his armoured train in August 2002.

Just how often Kim Jong-un has used the train to travel inside North Korea is not known.
But his father, who famously hated flying and had a penchant for a playboy lifestyle, is said to have decked the train out for lavish parties,
bouts of heavy drinking and karaoke on his many journeys by rail.

According to an account published in 2002 by Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian official who accompanied Kim Jong-il on a three-week trip
to Moscow in 2001, the train carried cases of bordeaux and beaujolais from Paris.

Passengers could also feast on live lobster and barbecued pork.


Replica on display in Pyongyang

A version of the train open to the North Korean public is more businesslike.
A life-size replica of one of the train's carriages is on permanent display in the ornate mausoleum on the outskirts of Pyongyang, where
national founder Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il lie in state.


Heavy security and flat screen TVs

Kim Jong-il made about a dozen trips abroad, almost all to China and all by train.
The first was in 1983, while he was still Kim Il-sung's heir apparent.

That was the only time the special train is known to have been used by anyone but the leader himself.


Trips shrouded in secrecy

For Kim Jong-un's predecessors, trips were often secret until after they ended.
Experts still couch their estimates of how many times North Korean leaders have travelled abroad because some trips may still remain secret.


More of a train story then world news.





China has confirmed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has visited Beijing, and says it won a pledge from him to work
towards denuclearising the Korean Peninsula.

The news of the actual meeting can be viewed here

http://uk.businessinsider.com/china-internet-kim-jong-un-fatty-on-the-train-to-avoid-censors-2018-3

• China tried to keep Kim Jong Un's visit to Beijing a secret earlier this week.
• Many people were speculating, so authorities decided to censor terms and nicknames relating to the North Korean leader.
• To circumvent the ban, some internet users called Kim "fatty on the train" and "the obese patient."