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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un boards his train at Dong Dang Station in Vietnam’s Long Son Province on Mar. 2 on his return journey to Pyongyang. (KCNA/Yonhap News)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s return trip through China continued for a second day on Mar. 3 after the conclusion of his goodwill visit to Vietnam. While his exact route has not been disclosed, his personal train appears to be following the same course he used when traveling into Vietnam.

The previous day, Kim’s train departed Dong Dang Station in northern Vietnam and arrived in Pingxiang in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. On the morning Mar. 3, it passed through Changsha, Hunan Province, by way of Nanning. Roads near Changsha Station were reported completely cordoned off and security heavily intensified around the time the train passed through. A large screen was placed at Nanning Station, where footage of Kim smoking on a platform in the early morning hours was captured by a Japanese network during Kim’s travel to Vietnam. Predictions that he might detour around Nanning and stop in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province – which has experienced the fastest rate of development in China since reforms and openness were adopted – proved off the mark.

To attend the second North Korea-US summit, Kim departed Pyongyang by private train on the afternoon of Feb. 23, traveling through the Chinese cities of Dandong, Tianjin, Wuhan, Nanning and Pingxiang before arriving in Vietnam – a journey lasting 66 hours and covering 3,800km. His train passed through Tianjin on Mar. 4 around 7 am. If he opts to retrace the same route at its shortest distance for his return trip, he is seen as likely to arrive in North Korea on the evening of Mar. 4 or early in the morning on Mar. 5, passing through the border city of Dandong in Liaoning Province. Zhonglian Hotel in Dandong – from which trains can be seen passing over the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge – has reportedly not been accepting reservations through Mar. 5.

Originally, Kim was predicted to stop in Beijing on his return trip from the North Korea-US summit in Hanoi in order to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. But with the summit failing to produce the expected agreement and the return journey coinciding with the opening of China’s “Two Sessions” – the National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which represent the biggest events on the Chinese political calendar – a meeting between the two leaders is likely to be difficult to coordinate. At the same time, the possibility of Kim making a last-minute change in course to stop in Beijing to meet with Xi and discuss the summit’s results can be ruled out.

The Rodong Sinmun published a photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offering a floral wreath at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum on Mar. 2. (Yonhap News)

As the final item on the schedule of his goodwill visit to Vietnam, Kim paid respects at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum on the morning of Mar. 2. A leader in Vietnam’s war for independence and unification, Ho paid a visit to Pyongyang in 1957. Kim’s grandfather Kim Il-sung also had two summits with Ho during visits to Hanoi in 1958 and 1964.

After paying respects to his “grandfather’s comrade,” Kim Jong-un boarded a private train and departed Hanoi, arriving later on at Dong Dang railway station in Vietnam’s Lang Son Province on the Chinese border. While he had appeared somber as recently as a welcoming event held the day before soon after the North Korea-US summit broke down, Kim appeared to be in a much more upbeat mood and was seen smiling broadly. After changing to a different private train, Kim departed Dong Dang Station around 1 pm that day and crossed the Chinese border.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent, and Jung In-hwan,

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