Kim Jong Un arrives in Beijing via slow bulletproof train; all you need to know about his private vehicle and family’s love for locomotives

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Beijing by train on Tuesday (September 2, 2025) to attend a military parade with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. During his visit, which is his first for a major multilateral event in his 14-year rule, Kim Jong Un's armored olive-green train, which carried him to Beijing, hogged the spotlight.

Kim, who took over as the supreme leader of North Korea in 2011, has made nine international trips and crossed the border into South Korea twice, using his bulletproof train for most of his travel, according to Barron's. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim was greeted at Beijing Railway Station by senior Chinese officials.

Kim Jong Un’s bulletproof train

The bulletproof train, known as Taeyang-ho or "sun train," continues a Kim dynasty tradition of using trains for travel. It is Kim's bulletproof private vehicle. It is the most preferred mode of transportation when he travels abroad. China organized the military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Sino-Japanese War and World War II. It has invited heads of state from more than 20 countries to attend.

The Kim family has a long history of traveling by rail to China, Russia, and other parts of what was then the Soviet Union. Kim's father, Kim Jong Il, was said to have a fear of flying. According to media reports, he used the train exclusively for trips to China and Russia, including a three-week, 12,400-mile round trip to Moscow in 2001. If he was aerophobic, he was also a great lover of train travel.

Kim Jong Un has used the train on two other trips to China and for trips to Russia's Far East in 2019 and 2023. When he had to cross an ocean in 2018 to make the 3,000-mile trip to Singapore to meet with President Donald Trump, Beijing rented him a Boeing 747.

The train is equipped with couches, satellite phones, computers, and TV sets. Its crew is said to include a small army of bodyguards and medical staff. Heavy weapons are also aboard, and many of the cars have bulletproof plating, especially the ones where Kim works and sleeps, according to South Korean officials. The train has also carried Kim's bulletproof sedan.

What makes Kim Jong Un’s bulletproof Train slow

The train is called a slow ride because of the extra weight of all that hardware, along with the decrepit state of North Korea's rail system. The train can reach a maximum speed of just 37 mph inside North Korea, according to experts in South Korea, according to NYT News Service.

In 2019, it took Kim nearly three days to cross North Korea and China on the train and reach Hanoi, Vietnam, for his second summit with Trump, NYT reported. The train is reportedly stocked with supplies that cater to the ruling Kim's whims.

Kim Jong Un to attend military parade in Beijing

Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin are among the 26 world leaders who will join China's President Xi Jinping at Wednesday's (September 3, 2025) massive military parade in Beijing that commemorates the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and China's fight against Japan's wartime aggressions.