Explained | An armoured train & a mystery yacht are just a few ways Kim Jong Un travels

As per recent media reports, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un has boarded his bulletproof train which is on its way to Russia's port city Vladivostok, where he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In accordance with a long-standing tradition followed by North Korean leaders, Kim will be spending more than 20 hours on a slow-moving locomotive and covering around 1,180km (733 miles). The train is said to have a restaurant which serves dishes like fresh lobster and fine French wines.

The train's heavy armoured protection makes it move at a mere speed of about 50km/h (31mph), in comparison to London's high-speed rail which can run at around 200km/h and Japan's Shinkansen bullet trains can reach 320 km/h.

The train has been named Taeyangho, which means the sun in the Korean language and is a symbolic reference to the country's founder Kim Il Sung.

The tradition of trains

Kim Jong Un's grandfather Kim Il Sung started the tradition of long-distance travel via train after he started going on train trips to Vietnam and Eastern Europe.

Security agents heavily guard these luxurious trains and scan the routes and stationsfor bombs and other threats.

As per reports, Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il used to travel by train because he had a fear of planes. In 2001, Kim Jong Il famously travelled by train for 10 days to reach Moscow and hold talks with Putin.

Speaking about the train's opulence, Russian military commander Konstantin Pulikovsky had stated in his memoir, "It was possible to order any dish of Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and French cuisine."

He further stated that live lobsters were transported to the train to ensure fresh delicacies were available. He stated that even the private train of Putin "did not have the comfort of Kim Jong Il's train”.

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Luxurious private planes

Apart from trains, Kim also travels in other forms of luxurious transport, like private planes. After coming to power, the North Korean leader boarded his first international flight to reach the Chinese city of Dalian in May 2018, where he was scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The aircraft, aboard which he went to China, was a Soviet-made long-range aircraft called the Ilyushin-62 (Il-62). As per media reports, Kim has previously used his private jet to travel within the country.

As per local media, the aircraft is called "Chammae-1" which has been named after the goshawk, the national bird of North Korea. The plane's white exterior is emblazoned with the official name of North Korea in Korean on both sides, with the national flag accompanying the text. The tail has a red star placed inside blue and red circles. The plane has modern interiors, and occasionally Kim has been photographed working inside the aircraft and holding meetings onboard.

According to a documentary aired by Korean Central Television in 2014, Kim was also seen flying a Ukrainian Antonov-148 (AN-148), which features the logo of state airline Air Koryo.

Kim's personal Mercedes-Benz S-Class

Kim had travelled via train to the Chinese capital Beijing in March 2018, but was seen travelling in his Mercedes-Benz S-Class across the city. As per South Korean daily JoongAng Ilbo, the officials had specially transported the car on board the train.

Manufactured in 2010, the car cost roughly around 2 billion Korean won ($1.8 million), as reported by the paper.

During the 2018 inter-Korean summit held at Panmunjom, the favoured S-Class model of Kim was prominent when he drove it across the border, as his bodyguards ran alongside.

It was also reported that his convoy at the summit featured a private toilet car which was used by Kim to relieve himself while travelling. The report of a private toilet car was mentioned in a 2015 report by the Seoul-based website DailyNK, which stated that a customised bathroom had been built into one of the cars of a convoy of armoured vehicles of Kim.

Mystery yacht

North Korea's state media said that the leader has been riding on submarines, buses, boats and also a ski lift. He has also been rumoured to use different forms of transport, but these remain to be seen in his excursions abroad.

When photos of the leader's visit to an army-run fishing station in May 2013 were published by the state media, a yacht was observed by NK News in the background.

No clear information was available on the vessel, which is said to belong to Kim and its cost was estimated at $7 million. It also remained a mystery how the yacht was imported even though there are international sanctions on luxury goods.

However, considering the price of the yacht, many international media outlets believed that the ruler of the nation was its most likely owner.

Washington-based Radio Free Asia in June 2015 reported that a researcher had seen a new helipad at the lakeside villa of Kim in South Pyongan province.

The researcher, who was working at the US-Korea Institute of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, stated that the helipad was likely being used by the family of Kim or visitors.

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