bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

John Power

Lee Jeong-ho

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is unlikely to make his entire journey from Pyongyang to Hanoi by rail next week because of potential security risks, three sources have told the South China Morning Post.
A South Korean government official said it was doubtful Kim would travel so far by train alone, but could use rail in combination with air travel.
The North Korean leader is set to meet US President Donald Trump for their second summit on denuclearisation on February 27 and 28.
“Railway travelling routes from China to Hanoi are already well-exposed to the public,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s not ideal for security.”


Separate sources at South Korea’s presidential Blue House and another government agency also expressed similar scepticism.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that Vietnamese authorities were preparing for Kim to travel through China by train and arrive at the border station of Dong Dang, where he would disembark and drive 170km to the capital of Hanoi by car.

Kim travelled on his distinctive green locomotive, which is fitted out with facilities such as bedrooms and conference rooms, for his first trip abroad since taking power in 2011 – to Beijing in March last year – but took an Air China flight to Singapore for his first summit with Trump in June.
The train, which appears identical to that used by his father and grandfather, is believed to have a top of speed of just 60 km/h, meaning a cross-China trip starting at the North Korean border city of Dandong would take about 60 hours – or two and a half days.
Listen to the Asia briefing podcast
Kim Jong-il, the current’s leader’s father who was notoriously afraid of flying, used the train for an even longer trip to Moscow in 2001.
Experts said the fastest route for Kim to take to Vietnam would see him pass through a number of major Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Jinan, Nanjing and Guilin before arriving at Kunming, Yunnan province, near the border with Vietnam.


“I would say probably that he will go through the heart of China, from Beijing to Shanghai, then from Shanghai to Shandong and then moving westward to Jiangsu province and then reaching down to Kunming, [in] the Yunnan area,” said Jaewoo Choo, a professor of Chinese foreign policy at Kyung Hee University in Seoul.
A less exposed but much slower train route for Kim could see him travel north and west through less-populated provinces such as Heilongjiang, Xinjiang and Sichuan before arriving at Kunming.
“That route is less exposed and I think it would be much easier for them to secure,” Choo said.

But such a trip is likely to result in major disruption for Chinese commuters.
For Kim’s Beijing visit, authorities locked down stations and rescheduled services to ensure Kim’s security. They kept mum about the leader’s movements but social media users reported major delays on the normally efficient train network.
Adam Cathcart, a researcher of China-North Korea relations at the University of Leeds in the UK, said even though China had a high-speed rail network, the old network of slow trains was still being used. “You can still get slow trains all around China,” he said. “So it’s not like those tracks are just free for use at any time.”
An extended train journey by Kim would open up the possibility of stops en route for meetings with Chinese officials.

“My assumption is that he won’t stop on the way to Hanoi, but might stop on the way back, and my guess is he’ll stop at one of the major economic hubs in Guangdong, since that is where Ri Yong-ho and Kim Chang-sun scoped out on their own trips to Hanoi in November and December, and just a few days ago,” said Christopher Green, a North Korea analyst at the anti-conflict NGO Crisis Group, referring to the North’s foreign minister and senior negotiator, respectively.
Next week’s Trump-Kim summit meeting comes as progress on North Korea denuclearisation has stalled since the leaders signed a vaguely worded agreement committing the North “to work toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”.
North Korea’s special envoy to the US, Kim Hyok-chol, arrived in Hanoi on Wednesday for talks with his counterpart Stephen Biegun.


The preferred location for the summit is believed to be the Government Guesthouse, a colonial-era government building in central Hanoi, although a backup location could be the nearby Metropole Hotel, according to Reuters.
On Wednesday, Kim Hyok-chol was spotted visiting the Government Guesthouse with three other people believed to be members of the North Korean delegation.
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter


What if Trump wins?

South Korea restores military drills once reduced to help Trump – gets tough with North Korea, bolsters ties with US

Donald Trump ‘improperly’ took Kim Jong-un ‘love letters’ from White House to Mar-a-Lago

North Korea launches most powerful missile in years for record 7th weapons test of month

Trump-Kim summit

Kim Jong-un unlikely to travel exclusively by rail to Hanoi for Trump-Kim summit 2019: sources

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un waves from his train in Beijing. Photo: AP

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets with the head of the Chinese Communist Party's international affairs department Song Tao as Kim's wife Ri Sol Ju looks on, on a train in Dandong, China, in this still image from video released by KRT on March 29, 2018. KRT/via REUTERS TV ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NORTH KOREA OUT.

Police officers keep watch next to a train at the Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, China March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Kim Hyok Chol, right, North Korea's special representative for U.S. affairs, arrives at Beijing International Airport in Beijing, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019. (Minoru Iwasaki/Kyodo News via AP)

Donald Trump now says there’s ‘no rush’ for North Korea to give up nuclear weapons, sinking hopes that summit with Kim Jong-un will set deadlines

US President Donald Trump (right) poses with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un at the start of their summit, at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore last June. Photo: AFP

(FILES) In this file photo taken on June 11, 2018 North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (R) walks with US President Donald Trump (L) during a break in talks at their historic US-North Korea summit, at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore. - US President Donald Trump announced February 8, 2019, that his upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place in Hanoi on February 27 and 28. The US State Department announced February 8, 2019, that the special US envoy for North Korea will meet again with Pyongyang officials before a second summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un -- hours after he returned to Seoul from talks in the North on the summit's agenda. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

If Korean war ends after Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi, will Seoul still require national service?

South Korean and US Marines during joint military drills. Photo: AP

epa04896774 (FILE) A file picture released on 11 AUgust 2015 by the Defense Ministry shows South Korean soldiers installing loudspeakers at a unidentified site on the western front-line bordering North Korea to resume its anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasting. South and North Korea reached an agreement 25 August in talks to defuse tensions in the latest crisis on the peninsula. Under the agreement, North Korea's 'quasi-state of war' would be lifted, and South Korea would stop its broadcast of propaganda by loudspeaker across their shared border, South Korean security advisor Kim Kwan Jin said from Seoul. EPA/YONHAP

epa07080406 South Korean President Moon Jae-in (R) and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L) hold hands as they cross the military demarcation line (MDL) at the Joint Security Area (JSA) on the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, 27 April 2018. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are meeting at the Peace House in Panmunjom for an inter-Korean summit. The event marks the first time a North Korean leader has crossed the border into South Korea sine the end of hostilities during the Korean War. EPA-EFE/KOREA SUMMIT PRESS POOL / POOL

Trump-Kim summit 2019: is North Korea really willing to give up its nukes? The Americans who negotiated a 1994 deal still have hope

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump in Singapore. Photo: AP

Thae Yong-ho, a former deputy at the North Korean embassy in London, gestures as he speaks during a news conference at the Seoul Foreign Correspondents' Club in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019. U.S. President Donald Trump is making a mistake of seeking peace first and denuclearization later, Thae said, ahead of Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un planned for Feb. 27-28 in Hanoi. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

Since 2006, Pyongyang has carried out six successful nuclear tests. Photo: Reuters

FILE - In this July 4, 2017, file photo distributed by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second from right, inspects the preparation of the launch of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in North Korea's northwest. With their second summit fast approaching, speculation is growing that U.S. President Donald Trump may try to persuade Kim to commit to denuclearization by giving him something he wants more than almost anything else, an announcement of peace and an end to the Korean War. A combination of that strategy and the North’s repeated tests of missiles believed capable of delivering its nuclear weapons to the U.S. mainland are what brought the two countries to the negotiation table. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)

Children in North Korean-built kindergarten practise Korean songs for Kim Jong-un ahead of Trump-Kim summit 2019 in Hanoi

Children at the Vietnam-North Korea Friendship kindergarten, founded by the North Korean government in Hanoi. Photo: Reuters

REFILE - CORRECTING ID Vietnamese children play in front of a portrait of late North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il at the Vietnam-North Korea Friendship kindergarten, founded by North Korean Government in 1978 in Hanoi, Vietnam February 13, 2019. Picture taken February 13, 2019. REUTERS/Kham

Can North Korea copy Vietnam’s economic miracle?

Kim Jong-un’s regime has recently undertaken a flurry of diplomatic engagement with Vietnam. Photo: AP

A photo taken on June 15, 2018 shows the Ryugyong Hotel in the distance of this general view of the Pyongyang's skyline. Donald Trump dangled the carrot of foreign investment in front of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their nuclear summit, but analysts say few will want to put money into one of the highest-risk business environments in the world. / AFP PHOTO / Ed JONES / TO GO WITH AFP STORY: NKorea-Economy-Diplomacy-Nuclear; Focus by Sebastien BERGER

In this Tuesday, June 12, 2018, file photo, North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, left, and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands during their first meeting at the Capella resort on Sentosa Island in Singapore. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

This picture taken on September 1, 2016 shows a street vendor walking past rows of Vietnamese national flags hung in front of homes for Vietnam's National Day on September 2 in downtown Hanoi. The Lunar New Year, known locally as Tet which starts on January 28, 2017, sees red and gold cascade across Vietnam as the unmistakable communist flag gets a proud airing -- an act of patriotism promoted each year by officials via loudspeakers or doorstep visits. / AFP PHOTO / HOANG DINH NAM

Nha Trang, Vietnam. Photo: Roy Issa

Aerial view of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Handout

News

Asia

Southeast Asia

East Asia

A South Korean official said rail routes from China to Hanoi were ‘well-exposed’ to public and were ‘not ideal for security’


A South Korean government official said it was doubtful Kim would travel so far by train alone, but could use rail in combination with air travel.


Kim Jong-un unlikely to travel exclusively by rail to Hanoi for Trump-Kim summit 2019: sources

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}A South Korean official said rail routes from China to Hanoi were ‘well-exposed’ to public and were ‘not ideal for security’

A South Korean official said rail routes from China to Hanoi were ‘well-exposed’ to public and were ‘not ideal for security’