North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made a second visit to China, as the countdown for his unprecedented summit with the President of the U.S., Donald Trump, began. During March-end, Mr. Kim travelled to Beijing in his green yellow-striped luxury train to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. This time, he took the aerial route to travel to Dalian, a picturesque coastal city in northeast China, to meet Mr. Xi.
Clearly, Mr. Kim, in his 30s, has no aversion to flying, unlike his father and grandfather, Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung, who preferred the slow-moving armoured trains for their journeys abroad. State media has shown footage of Mr. Kim at the controls of a military AN-2 biplane. A 2014 documentary by state-owned Korean Central Television (KCTV) showed him inside a Ukrainian Antonov-148 plane, bearing the Air Koryo logo of the state airline.
The Russian Ilyushin-62, named Chammae-1, which brought Mr. Kim to Dalian, maybe ageing, but it has plush modern interiors. Pictures circulated on the Internet of Mr. Kim sitting in his plane, talking on the phone kept on a shiny brown table next to a window. An ashtray on the table was a giveaway that smoking inside the cabin of the leader’s plane was permitted. Mr. Kim and his wife Ri Sol-ju are known to have used their special plane, humorously dubbed Air Force-un, during their travels at home.
But the aircraft was first showcased abroad only this year, during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea. The plane then carried a high-level Olympics delegation from Pyongyang. Also on board was Kim Yo-jong, Mr. Kim’s only sister. She became a star media attraction at the February games, stealing the thunder from Mike Pence, the U.S. Vice-President, who refused to acknowledge her presence, even though the two were seated close to each other during the opening ceremony of the games.
During his first visit to China, Mr. Kim’s “baggage” on the train included his favourite black Mercedes Benz S-class car. Citing South Korean daily JoongAng Ilbo , BBC reported that the 2010 model vehicle had a price tag of around $1.8 million. The leader’s preference for S-class sedans was also apparent during his ice-breaking summit on April 27 with the South Korean President Moon Jae-in. As he wheeled for the cross-border meeting, images of his car with bodyguards running alongside became an instant hit on the big screen, and went viral on the social media.
Delicate diplomacy
In Dalian, Mr. Kim got a taste of Mr. Xi’s informal style of delicate diplomacy, showcased last month in Wuhan where he held five “informal” rounds of talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Ahead of the crucial summit with Mr. Trump on June 12, the North Korean leader went for a seaside stroll with Mr. Xi. On another occasion, the two were seated in the lush outdoors of a state-owned property. Some red lines also seem to have been drawn during this conversation. North Korea made it plain that it needed iron-clad guarantees against “regime change” if talks to remove all atomic weapons from the Korean peninsula are to succeed.
“(Mr.) Kim said it is the DPRK’s lasting position to achieve the peninsula’s denuclearisation. As long as the relevant party eliminates its hostile policies and security threats against the DPRK, there is no need for the DPRK to possess nuclear weapons, and the denuclearsation could be achieved,” reported the state-run China Daily on the Kim-Xi talks.
Atul Aneja works for The Hindu and is based in Beijing
