When outdoors intelligence officers search proof of North Korea’s chief, Kim Jong-un, leaving on a visit overseas — like his journey to Russia this week to fulfill with President Vladimir V. Putin — they at all times search for the whereabouts of a practice painted a colorless inexperienced.
One such practice was noticed on Monday heading north, close to the place the borders of North Korea, Russia and China meet. It was transferring within the course of Vladivostok, the place Mr. Putin is attending an financial discussion board. On Tuesday, North Korean state media confirmed that Mr. Kim had certainly left Pyongyang, the North’s capital, for Russia by practice.
The inexperienced practice officers search for is the particular bulletproof one which Mr. Kim — and his father and grandfather, who dominated North Korea earlier than him — have used to go to China, Russia or the previous Soviet Union. Family members have been stated to lack confidence that they might make a protected long-distance journey utilizing one among their nation’s decrepit fleet of outdated Soviet-era passenger jets.
While a lot about Mr. Kim’s newest journey stays a thriller, here’s what we all know in regards to the practice:
More highly effective than a dashing bullet, however a lot slower
Much of what’s identified in regards to the practice comes from intelligence reviews, recollections of officers permitted to journey on board in earlier eras and uncommon state news media footage.
There are believed to be not less than 90 high-security carriages on the chief’s disposal, in line with a 2009 South Korea news report that relied on categorized data. According to the report, written in the course of the period of Mr. Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il, three trains function every time the chief travels: an advance safety practice, the chief’s practice and a 3rd carrying extra bodyguards and provides.
Each of the carriages is bulletproof, making them 1000’s of kilos heavier than common. That extra weight interprets to a sluggish journey. The trains are estimated to achieve a most pace of simply 37 miles per hour.
In Kim Jong-il’s time, in line with the 2009 report, 100 safety officers traveled within the advance practice, looking stations for bombs and different threats and testing the security of the monitor. Additionally, navy helicopters and airplanes would fly overhead to offer extra safety.
Twenty practice stations have been constructed throughout North Korea only for the chief’s private use, in line with the report.
All the comforts of residence
North Korea’s state news media often coated the leaders from contained in the practice, providing a uncommon glimpse at among the many specialised vehicles.
When Kim Jong-un made his first state go to to China in 2018, he met a senior Chinese official who boarded his practice in a carriage lined with thick pink sofas.
In 2015, Kim Jong-un was seen seated at a protracted white desk in what seemed to be a convention room. In an identical video from 2011, his father, Kim Jong-il, is seen holding court docket in the identical compartment. In the older video, a flat-screen tv is clearly seen, and within the more moderen one, a laptop computer pc could be seen.
In footage of the elder Mr. Kim’s journeys, the chief is seen in an viewers automotive with plush seats; main a gathering in a eating automotive; and attending a banquet in a automotive paneled in darkish wooden. In that footage, Mr. Kim is seated at a desk stuffed with meals as entertainers carry out in tuxedos and night robes.
The former chief’s workplace automotive, together with a desk and pc, is preserved as a museum exhibit on the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, Kim Jong-il’s mausoleum in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.
Lobster, wine and ‘lady conductors’
Kim Jong-il was rumored to have had a concern of flying and most popular to journey on his practice, which was outfitted with trendy communications expertise and a big employees that catered to his whims.
“It was possible to order any dish of Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and French cuisine,” wrote Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian official who traveled with the previous chief throughout a 2011 journey by means of Russia.
Mr. Kim insisted that stay lobster and different recent delicacies be delivered to the practice because it crossed Siberia on journeys to Russia. Cases of Bordeaux and Burgundy wines have been flown in from Paris, Mr. Pulikovsky recounted in his memoir of the journey, “Orient Express.”
When bored, Mr. Kim relied on a bunch of feminine entertainers generally known as girl conductors to serenade him in Korean and Russian.
It is unknown what his son, Kim Jong-un, does for nourishment and leisure whereas on board, however the youthful Mr. Kim’s urge for food is thought to rival his father’s. He reportedly prefers Swiss cheese, Cristal Champagne and Hennessy cognac.
Tragedies on the tracks
The practice has been on the middle of a number of tragic occasions in trendy North Korean historical past.
More than 160 folks have been killed in Ryongchon, close to the Chinese border, in April 2004, when trains laden with flamable materials exploded due to a collision or {an electrical} malfunction.
There have been preliminary rumors that the explosion was a part of an try on Kim Jong-il’s life as a result of the chief’s practice had handed by means of the city hours earlier.
According to the state news media, he would later die aboard his practice after a coronary heart assault in December 2011.
After he turned chief, Kim Jong-un visited China 4 instances and Vietnam as soon as — all by practice. He additionally visited Russia by practice and met Mr. Putin in 2019.
Source: www.nytimes.com