North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in China on Tuesday aboard his armored green train, a symbol of his family’s dynasty and his preferred mode of international travel.
The visit highlights Kim’s efforts to strengthen ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a time of heightened tensions with the United States.
State media released photos of Kim smiling with Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui in a luxurious train carriage, and another of him smoking outside a carriage marked with the North Korean state seal.
The train, which travels at about 60 kilometers per hour (37 mph), is slow but heavily fortified. Kim last used it in 2023 for a summit with Putin in Russia.
Kim is among 26 foreign leaders invited by Xi to attend a massive military parade in Beijing on Wednesday, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
He is expected to stand alongside Xi and Putin at Tiananmen Square, projecting Cold War–style solidarity among the three nations.
The armored train has long been associated with North Korea’s ruling family. Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, traveled almost exclusively by train, and even died aboard it in 2011.
The younger Kim has occasionally traveled by air, borrowing a Chinese jet for his 2018 Singapore summit with Donald Trump, but generally avoids flights.
Kim also maintains a fleet of imported luxury cars and has often used white horses in propaganda events, sometimes accompanied by his daughter, believed by South Korean intelligence to be his heir apparent.
Kim’s reliance on his armored train underscores both his focus on security and his desire to present himself as a leader on equal footing with global powers.