Bulletproof, satellite communications, and conference space… slow to around 60 km/h

It was also used during visits to flood-stricken areas in Russia in 2023 and North Pyongan Province in 2024.

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Soo-yoon = The special train 'Taeyangho' that Chairman Kim Jong-un of North Korea is said to have used to attend the '80th Anniversary of Victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Military Parade' to be held in Beijing, China on the 3rd is a 'fortress' equipped with bulletproof functions and weapons such as mortars.

However, it is reported that it can only reach a speed of about 60 km/h due to its bulletproof features and armament, making it heavier than a regular train, and the poor condition of the North Korean railway tracks.

Chairman Kim departed Pyongyang by train on the afternoon of the 1st and is expected to arrive in Beijing on the 2nd after a 20-hour journey.

The most recent time Chairman Kim was seen using a special train was in July and August of last year, when he visited flood-stricken areas in North Pyongan Province.

At the time, Chairman Kim used this as a stage to give a speech to the flood victims, with the doors of one of the train cars completely open on both sides. Behind the door, a top-of-the-line new Mercedes-Benz sports utility vehicle (SUV) was positioned, giving an idea of the size of the space inside the train.

Georgy Toloraya, a former Russian diplomat and director of the Center for Asian Strategy at the Russian Academy of Sciences, reported in a 2019 article for NK News that the North Korean leader's personal train even had a compartment for transporting armored Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

When Chairman Kim visited the flood-stricken area last year, he presided over the 22nd Political Bureau Emergency Enlarged Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea on a train. The train's office contained a long conference table and several telephones, suggesting that satellite communications were taking place.

The interior of the train featured in the documentary"Father of the People," released by Korean Central TV in October 2022, is equipped with desktop monitors and laptops.

During his overseas trips, Chairman Kim mainly used trains.

He took a 9-night, 10-day round trip train to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Amur Oblast, Russia, in September 2023.

When I met President Putin in Vladivostok in April 2019, I traveled about 1,200 kilometers by train.

In February 2019, when he was traveling to Hanoi, Vietnam, where the second North Korea-US summit with then-US President Donald Trump was held, he stayed on the train for a full 60 hours.

Chairman Kim has previously visited China four times. He traveled by train during his first visit in March 2018 and his fourth visit in January 2019, and took his special plane, the Chammae-1, during his visits in May and June 2018.

However, since 2018, there has been no public use of 'Chammae 1' for 7 years.