Kim Jong Un’s train travel has a storied history. His father and grandfather did the same thing

By TED ANTHONY
AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — North Korea’s Kim Jong Un’s train journey to Russia has a storied history. The tradition of train travel extends across the generations. That’s in evidence at the massive Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where reconstructions of Kim Jong Un’s father’s and grandfather’s train cars, and the leaders’ preserved and displayed remains, are enshrined. The prominent place that the elder two Kims’ highly secure train cars occupy in the shrine to their leadership hints at the central role of train travel among North Korean leaders, who have used trains for travel domestically and sometimes abroad since the early days of the state. The customized train took Kim Jong Un for talks with President Vladimir Putin which began on Wednesday.