Came to Russia again Kim Chen In. His name is known throughout the planet, but many aspects of the life of the General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and Chairman of State Affairs of the DPRK are shrouded in mystery. Nevertheless, the Western media are looking for some interesting ones, but – alas! – often unverified details of his biography and unusual habits.
It is said that every time the North Korean leader travels, three trains run: a front guard, the leader’s train, and a third carrying additional bodyguards and supplies.
Each of the carriages is bulletproof, which makes them hundreds of kilograms heavier than regular ones. This extra weight explains the slow ride – a maximum of 60 km per hour.
During Kim Jong Il’s time, 100 security personnel rode on the advance train, searching stations for bombs and other threats and checking the safety of the tracks. Military helicopters and airplanes provided security from the air. According to information from 14 years ago, twenty railway stations were built throughout North Korea only for the personal use of the country’s leader.
The train has bedrooms and conference rooms. A 2018 video showed Kim meeting with top Chinese officials in a spacious carriage filled with pink sofas.
Travelers can order any dish of Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and French cuisine. After Kim Jong-un became the leader of the DPRK, he visited China four times and once Vietnam (via Chinese territory) by train. He also visited Russia by armored train in 2019. But sometimes he had to use an airplane. Thus, he flew to the summit with Trump in Singapore on a Boeing 747 airliner of the Chinese airline Air China.
The other two planes that carried the North Korean delegation and entourage to the meeting were Soviet-made and operated by North Korea’s national carrier, Air Koryo (including the transport plane carrying Kim Jong-un’s armored limousine). In general, according to Chinese aviation experts, Kim Jong-un’s own official aircraft is the Il-62, which has been in operation for about 40 years.
“Interfax”, 04/26/2019, “Daimler was surprised that Kim Jong-un had a German armored limousine”: […] Kim Jong-un has repeatedly used armored limousines produced by Daimler at various summits. In particular, he drove such a car during the summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, as well as earlier at the summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore and Hanoi. The interest surrounding the presence of a Daimler limousine by the DPRK leader is due to the fact that, in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution, the export of luxury goods, in particular luxury cars, to North Korea is prohibited. — Insert K.ru
During Kim’s rare foreign visits, the public’s attention was drawn to the foot escort of plainclothes guards running behind the leader’s rather slow-moving car.
A juicy detail: Kim Jong-un uses a “private toilet” when traveling, one North Korean defector told The Washington Post. The point here is rather a desire to keep information about the leader’s health status secret. In 2015, the South Korean news agency DailyNK reported that one of the cars in Kim Jong-un’s convoy had a special bathroom built into it.
The media also claim that Kim Jong-un is accompanied on his trips abroad by a special machine for preparing a dish made from buckwheat noodles naengmyeon.
