Kim Jong Un travels to China on armoured train to attend military parade with Putin and Xi
Kim Jong Un is on his way to Beijing aboard a heavily armoured fortress style train to meet with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.
Kim Jong Un is heading to Beijing aboard a heavily armoured fortress style train to attend a massive military parade with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The North Korean dictator’s bulletproof signature green train – dubbed Taeyangho, which means “moving fortress” – crossed the border into China on Tuesday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, citing the North’s state-run radio service.
Mr Kim is set to join Mr Putin, Mr Xi, and several other world leaders for a military parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Wednesday to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II.
If it proceeds as planned, the event will mark Mr Kim’s first trip to Beijing since 2019 and the first time the three leaders will appear at the same event.
Photos show Mr Kim smiling and sitting at a wooden table on board the special train as it departed Pyongyang.
The train, which has been used by the nation’s leaders, travels at a slow speed of 60 kilometres an hour, according to a 2009 report by South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo.
It contains conference rooms, bedrooms, an audience chamber and flat screen televisions, according to the newspaper.
The 1,300km journey to Beijing is expected to take about 20 hours.
China’s massive parade
China has touted its military parade – which will see troops marching in formation, fly-pasts and other high-tech fighting gear – as a show of unity with other countries.
Security around Beijing has tightened in recent days and weeks, with road closures, military personnel stationed on bridges and street corners, and white barriers lining the capital’s wide boulevards.
Art installations with flowers, doves and an emblem showing the Great Wall of China with “1945-2025” have cropped up around the city, and on Tuesday morning Chinese flags flew in residential neighbourhoods.
Officials have been tight-lipped over the list of hardware to be displayed at the parade, but military enthusiasts have already spotted significant new systems, including what is rumoured to be a gigantic laser weapon.
Xi and Putin take swipes at the West
The parade comes after Mr Xi hosted a slew of Eurasian leaders for a summit in the northern port city of Tianjin aimed at putting China front and centre of regional relations.
The club of 10 countries – named the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) – touts itself as a non-Western style of collaboration in the region and seeks to be an alternative to traditional alliances.
During the summit, Mr Xi slammed “bullying behaviour” from certain countries in a veiled reference to the United States.
“The security and development tasks facing member states have become even more challenging,” the Chinese President said in his address in the northern port city of Tianjin.
“With the world undergoing turbulence and transformation, we must continue to follow the Shanghai spirit … and better perform the functions of the organisation.”
Meanwhile, Mr Putin used his speech to defend Russia’s Ukraine offensive, blaming the West for triggering the three-and-a-half-year conflict which has killed tens of thousands and devastated much of eastern Ukraine.
“This crisis wasn’t triggered by Russia’s attack on Ukraine, but was a result of a coup in Ukraine, which was supported and provoked by the West,” he said.
Mr Kim enjoyed a brief bout of high-profile international diplomacy from around 2018, meeting US President Donald Trump and then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in multiple times.
But he withdrew from the global scene after the collapse of a summit with Mr Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2019.
Mr Kim stayed in North Korea throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, but met Mr Putin in Russia’s far east in 2023.
– With AFP
Originally published as Kim Jong Un travels to China on armoured train to attend military parade with Putin and Xi
