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Inside Kim Jong Un's personal train - which is bulletproof, has all-white conference rooms, and its own red carpet ramp

Mar 29, 2018, 17:07 IST

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KCNA

Kim Jong Un visited China earlier this week, his first official trip outside of North Korea as leader.

Officials only confirmed the visit after it was over - but one massive hint gave away Kim's presence, namely the presence of his personal armoured train pulling in Beijing.

Not much is known about the Kim family train, but previous accounts and footage show it to be filled with imported French wine, flat screen TVs, and plush leather seats.

A host of photos from North Korean state media provided a rare look inside the unusual vehicle - take a look inside:

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The train's arrival in Beijing on Monday disrupted the entire region's railway schedule. When Kim Jong Il travelled on the train, power to other lines would be shut down so nobody could get in his way.

Source: The Chosun Ilbo

The train has an average speed of just 37mph — likely because every carriage is bulletproof, making it much heavier than a regular train.

Source: The Chosun Ilbo, The New York Times

It also has a red-carpeted ramp on which the supreme leader can board the train. It's not clear whether Kim Jong Un used it in this trip to China.

Inside one of the carriages are pink leather chairs with small wooden tables in between. Here's Kim, his wife Ri Sol Ju, and other officials sitting on them.

This carriage looks long enough to fit at least 20 people.

The elder Kim also had a flat-screen TV, wooden desk and a computer at the end of one of his carriages. The desk and computer are now being preserved at Kim's mausoleum in Pyongyang. It's not clear where the TV is.

Source: The New York Times

Kim Jong Un also conducts official business on the train. This still from a 2015 video shows Kim Jong Un speaking to officials in an all-white conference room during a domestic trip.

Unlike his father, however, Kim seems to prefer using Apple MacBooks to desktop computers.

Kim Jong Un is known to be an Apple fan.

The elder Kim used to travel in opulence — he stocked his train with Bordeaux and Burgundy red wines, silver chopsticks, and whatever else he fancied from around the world. This is according to Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian official who travelled with the late North Korean leader in the early 2000s — when the rest of North Korea was reliant on humanitarian aid after years of famine.

Source: The New York Times

"It was possible to order any dish of Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and French cuisine" on board, Pulikovsky said. This undated video shows a section of the train's dining carriage under Kim Jong Il's reign, which has reportedly since been renovated.

Source: The New York Times

It's not clear whether Kim Jong Un stocks the train as opulently as his father did. But he's not known to be one to skimp — he reportedly enjoys Swiss cheese, Cristal Champagne and Hennessy cognac.

Source: The New York Times

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