N.Korea’s Kim on train to Vietnam for Trump summit

Seoul (dpa, 24 Feb 2019) -   North Korean state media on Sunday confirmed that leader Kim Jong Un has departed by train to travel to Vietnam for his second meeting with US President Donald Trump.  

The official Korea Central News Agency said Kim left Pyongyang railway station on Saturday and published a photo of him waving from a train carriage.  

NK News, a Seoul-based English language news site, reported earlier that Kim’s armoured train had crossed the Yalu Friendship Bridge into China on Saturday.  

The Kim family, which has ruled North Korea since its inception in the aftermath of World War II, has a long history of travelling abroad by train instead of air.  In March, Kim Jong Un travelled by train to Beijing. His father, Kim Jong Il, made at least two trips to Russia by train.   

North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, preferred train travel, having once made the journey overland from North Korea to East Germany in 1974.