Why North Korea's Kim Jong Un travels on trademark green train for foreign trips: What's inside?

The old-fashioned green train has been a part of the Kim dynasty since the time of North Korea's founding leader Kim Il Sung.

Kim Jong Un travelled from North Korea to China for the Chinese victory parade on his signature green armoured train, a form of transport that the country's leaders have relied upon for decades.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seen embarking from his iconic green-train as he arrived in China for the victory parade on Tuesday. (AP)

The old-fashioned, slow-moving train is a part of Kim's dynasty and the largely secluded country. The train has been carrying generations of the Kim family across the country and on rare international visits.

The bulletproof trains offer a safer and more convenient space for the North Korean leader's entourage in comparison to the country's fleet of passenger aircraft.

Inside the train

The green-coloured train with golden crests and trim has several carriages, including a bedroom, a restaurant, Kim's office and space for communications equipment.

The carriage also has carriages for two armoured Mercedes, Reuters reported, citing Ahn Byung-min, a South Korean expert on North Korean transport.

Photos released by the state media on Tuesday showed Kim taking a cigarette break next to the green carriage, standing with senior officials.

The North Korean leader was also seen sitting in a wood-panelled office in front of a large gold crest, surrounded by his country's flag.

Kim Jong Un seen travelling in his train from Pyongyang to China's Beijing for the military victory parade. (Reuters)

In his office, Kim was seen using a gold-embossed laptop, many telephones, his signature box of cigarettes and bottles with blue or clear liquids. The windows of the carriage had blue-and-gold curtains.

Russian official Konstantin Pulikovsky, in the 2002 book 'Orient Express', described Kim's father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il's three-week journey to Moscow. The train reportedly carried live lobsters and cases of Bordeaux and Beaujolais wine from Paris.

According to a 2009 South Korean newspaper's report, as cited by The Associated Press, the train also had conference rooms, an audience chamber, flat-screen televisions and satellite phone connections at the time. Some 20 stations were reportedly built for the Kim family train.

In a 2018 video released by state media, Kim was seen meeting with top Chinese officials in a wide train car with pink couches.

A state TV clip in 2020 showed Kim taking a train to visit a typhoon-affected area. It gave a glimpse of one of the carriages decorated with flower-shaped lighting and zebra-painted fabric chairs.

The famous green train is reportedly so heavily armoured that it travels at an average speed of 60 kph (37 mph).

Kim Jong Un last used the heavily fortified train on a 2023 trip to Russia for a summit with President Vladimir Putin.

How does the train travel across borders?

In 2023, when Kim travelled to Russia, his signature train's wheel assemblies had to be reportedly reconfigured at the border because Pyongyang and Moscow use different rail gauges.

However, there is no need for such a change in China. A Chinese locomotive pulls the train once it crosses the border, as a local engineer is aware of the rail system and signals, Kim Han-tae, a South Korean former train engineer, was cited as saying.

North Korea's flag flutters on side of the heavily-armoured green train, carrying Kim Jong Un, as it arrives in Beijing, China, for the military parade. (Reuters)

For his previous visits to China, Kim's train was usually hauled by matching green DF11Z locomotives, Chinese-made engines with China Railway Corporation's emblem. At least three differently serial-numbered engines pull the North Korean leader's train.

Citing the serial numbers on the recent engines as 0001 or 0001, Ahn hinted that China was providing Kim with locomotives reserved for the senior-most officials.

In 2019, Kim had travelled to Vietnam via China for his summit with US President Donald Trump. At the time, his train was hauled by a red-and-yellow locomotive sporting the emblem of China's national railway logo.

The green train's history

Kim's grandfather and North Korea's founding leader, Kim Il Sung, travelled abroad regularly by train during his rule, until his death in 1994.

Kim Jong Il also relied solely on trains for visiting Russia three times, including a 20,000 km-long trip to Moscow in 2011.

Kim's father reportedly died of a heart attack in late 2011 while travelling on one of his trains. That carriage is now on display at his mausoleum.

The slow-moving iconic green train has been at the centre of state propaganda around the Kim family's long train journeys to meet ordinary North Koreans across the isolated nation.

While his grandfather and father relied on trains, Kim Jong Un has also occasionally used planes to travel across the country and abroad.