Observations suggest Kim Jong-un may take train to Hanoi summit

A view of the Sino–Korean Friendship Bridge from the Zhonglian Hotel in Dandong, China, near the North Korean border. (Hankyoreh archives)

Hotel along Yalu River not accepting reservations for Feb. 23

Some observations have been made that back up the theory that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will use a train as his means of transportation to the second North Korea-US summit, which will be held in Hanoi on Feb. 27-28.

When the Hankyoreh called the Zhonglian Hotel in Dandong on the banks of the Yalu River on Feb. 22 to inquire about the booking situation at the hotel, a hotel employee said, “We have one room on the city side for Feb. 22, and we aren’t accepting reservations on Feb. 23.”

How will Kim Jong-un travel to Hanoi?

The previous day, an employee from this hotel told Kyodo News that “city authorities have ordered us not to accept customers on Feb. 23.” The employee also said, “We’re apparently going to get more instructions on the evening of Feb. 23 for Feb. 24 and beyond.”

The Zhonglian Hotel overlooks the Sino–Korean Friendship Bridge, which trains use to cross the Yalu River from Sinuiju to Dandong. The hotel was also prevented from taking reservations when North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited China by train. This has prompted predictions that Kim will be taking the train to Hanoi.

On Feb. 17, Japanese media captured footage of Kim Chang-son, chief secretary of the North Korean State Affairs Commission secretariat and de facto chief of staff to leader Kim Jong-un, visiting Dong Dang train station in Vietnam’s Lang Son Province, on the border with China. Kim Chang-son and his team were reportedly inspecting the security situation around the train station.

But as of the afternoon of Feb. 22, none of the indicators that preceded Kim Jong-un’s visits to China had been observed, such as streets being shut down in downtown Dandong or the Dandong train station being locked down. “It’s too early to judge from the current situation. I think we’ll have to keep an eye on things until this weekend at the earliest,” said a source on the ground.

Presuming that Kim’s private train usually travels at around 60km an hour, it would take nearly three days to travel the 4,000km from Pyongyang to Dong Dang station. Since the railroads linking Pyongyang, Beijing and Hanoi use the same gauge, there’s no technical reason why Kim couldn’t travel to Hanoi by train.

Among the four visits that Kim has made to China since March 2018, he used a train for the first and fourth visit. Amid reports that Kim will be arriving in Vietnam on Feb. 25, some observers think he’ll use a combination of planes, trains and automobiles for his journeys to and from Hanoi.

When Kim Jong-un’s father Kim Il-sung visited Vietnam in 1958, he first traveled through China by train as far as Guangzhou, in Guangdong Province, where he boarded a plane that took him to Hanoi. During his second visit in 1964, Kim Il-sung borrowed a Chinese plane to fly from Pyongyang to Hanoi, while stopping at a number of Chinese cities, including Beijing, Wuhan and Nanning, along the way.

By Kim Oi-hyun, Beijing correspondent

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