September 2, 2025 | 02:55 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The legendary train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un crossed the border into China on Tuesday, September 2, 2025, ahead of a military parade commemorating Japan's surrender in World War II, according to a report by Al Jazeera citing state media.
Kim is one of the 26 world leaders who are scheduled to attend the parade on Wednesday, September 3, 2025. The parade is being held to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The event in Beijing will be the first time Kim, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Russian President Vladimir Putin have all been in the same place at the same time.
Kim's visit to China follows the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Tianjin, during which Xi and Putin both criticized the West's dominance of the international order.
North Korea, one of the world's most isolated countries, has long relied on China and Russia for economic and diplomatic support.
In recent years, Pyongyang has grown closer to Moscow, sending thousands of troops to support Putin's war in Ukraine.
Kim, who rarely travels abroad, has met with Xi five times since taking power in 2011. Their last meeting was in 2019 at an event celebrating the 70th anniversary of Sino-North Korean relations.
Kim has met with Putin three times. The last meeting occurred in June 2024 in Pyongyang, where the two leaders signed a joint defense treaty.
Hereditary Railway
The state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported that Kim's train crossed the North Korea-China border early Tuesday.
Kim was accompanied by senior officials from the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea during his visit to China.
CNN reports that this ancient train has become a symbol of the Kim dynasty and its reclusive nation. It has long been the subject of intrigue, having transported generations of the Kim family across the country and on rare international trips.
Kim Jong Il, Kim's father and predecessor, was reportedly reluctant to fly and relied heavily on trains.
In 2002, Russian state media showed images of one of his trains—green with yellow stripes—when he visited Russia during a brief period of sanctions relief that allowed for greater engagement with the outside world.
Kim Jong Il and his father reportedly hosted lavish dinners abroad.
In a 2002 report, Russian official Konstantin Pulikovsky claimed that the train was carrying crates of Bordeaux and Beaujolais wine from Paris and that passengers enjoyed live lobsters and barbecued pork.
This brief period of openness and luxury, however, ended quickly when international sanctions were reinstated in 2003. Today, very little information from the isolated country reaches the outside world, but reports indicate severe poverty and malnutrition in much of the country.
The train is notoriously slow and has tight security. According to a 2009 report in the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, it is heavily armored, allowing it to travel at an average speed of 60 kilometers per hour.
The train contains conference and meeting rooms, as well as bedrooms. It is also equipped with satellite phone connections and flat-screen televisions. During Kim Jong Il's reign, about 20 stations were built for the family train.
Kim used the train for several trips abroad, though he also traveled by plane and private jet.
Kim rode this train during his last international visit, when he traveled to Russia's Far East in 2023 to meet with Putin. Photos released by state media at the time offered a look inside the locomotive, revealing polished wooden floors and ornate white doors.
According to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, state media footage released in 2022 showed Kim working in his office on the train and relaxing while smoking in a short-sleeved shirt.
During Kim's 2018 trip to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, North Korean state media footage showed Chinese officials boarding the train to greet Kim. The delegates held talks on the train, seated on two rows of pink sofas, as seen in photos.
In addition to being used for international travel, the train has also been featured in state propaganda depicting the Kim family taking long train journeys to meet with ordinary North Koreans.
A life-size model of one of the train's cars is on display at a mausoleum outside Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, where Kim's father and grandfather are buried.
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