North Korean leader Kim Jong Un began an extended trek to Vietnam Saturday ahead of a second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi. Trump, who is set to depart the U.S. late Monday for the long flight, will meet with Kim on Feb. 27 and 28. Trump will arrive in the Vietnamese capital on Tuesday morning Eastern time.
Trump will make the nearly 20-hour trip on Air Force One; Kim, meanwhile, will arrive by his preferred method of travel: train.
“It may be difficult for the outside world to comprehend why he would take a train for days instead of a couple hour plane ride,” Yuhwan Koh, professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, told ABC News. “It’s for domestic propaganda.”
The trip, from Pyongyang to Hanoi, will take approximately 60 hours. Kim is scheduled to arrive Tuesday. South Korean media reported that Kim’s train was spotted crossing the China border just after 8 a.m. ET.
The North Korean leader is retracing the footsteps of Kim Il Sung, his grandfather and the founder of North Korea, to boost significance to this trip, Koh said. Kim Il Sung visited Vietnam in 1958 by taking a train from Pyongyang to Guangzhou, and then traveling by plane to Hanoi.