Overview

• North Korean state media released photos of Kim aboard the olive‑green, bullet‑resistant train, including images of him meeting foreign minister Choe Son Hui.
• The journey from Pyongyang to Beijing took about 20 hours at roughly 60 km/h, according to a source cited by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
• It will be his first visit to China since 2019, with an appearance expected at the Sept. 3 Tiananmen parade alongside Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.
• South Korean intelligence has described a multi‑train security setup—scout, leader’s train, and escort—numbering around ninety carriages and supported by dedicated stations.
• Italian reporting says North Korea has supplied munitions and missiles to Russia, while separate claims of personnel deployments lack independent confirmation.