When the top leader of North Korea travels abroad, its secretive government often does not confirm the trip until he has arrived at his destination, or even after he has returned home.
So when both China and North Korea announced last week that Kim Jong-un would attend a military parade in Beijing on Wednesday, overseas intelligence officials began looking for the whereabouts of a train painted a drab green.
That train, known in North Korea simply as “The Sun,” is Mr. Kim’s bulletproof private vehicle. It is his favored mode of transportation when he travels abroad. Mr. Kim departed from Pyongyang on the train on Monday, the North’s state media reported, and wire services published photos and video of it arriving in Beijing on Tuesday,
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, including countries hostile toward the United States like Russia and Iran. The event will be Mr. Kim’s debut on a multilateral diplomatic stage.
Here is what we know about the train, which took Mr. Kim to China for his first trip there since 2019.