Air Force One (travelandleisure.com)

It is common knowledge that the president of the United States travels globally in a Boeing VC-25 (similar to a 747) dubbed Air Force One. But what does Kim Jong Un use to get away?

Kim’s armored train is rarely seen.

Kim doesn’t leave the North often but he has in the past and he does have options, albeit poor ones. For trips to China Kim prefers to travel by heavily armed train. The train he rides has been in use since his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, came to power.

His father, Kim Jong Il, utilized this very train for months at a time during trips to Europe. Following train cars carried any tool required to transfer the train to other tracks. His trains had luxurious conference rooms and reception halls, even a communications facility. He was said to be deathly afraid of flying.

Perhaps this fear was warranted. North Korea has for so long been investing so much money into the development of arms for military use that they have neglected economies they should have the competence to build. This neglect has left the nation with old, overused and underserviced Soviet-era planes, and not many of them either.

Planes are not new to Kim, who in recent years has overseen construction of runways at a few of his residences for his small private jets. North Korea claims Kim knows how to fly, and has released pictures of Kim sitting in a cockpit, fascinated with all the buttons and levers, like any experienced pilot.

An Il-62 (rorymacve.net)

Kim is accustomed to flying, just not in luxury. The Il-62 that North Korean heads of state travel in is also the model favored by officials in Russia, Ukraine, and Sudan. The Il-62 has a range of approximately 6000 miles compared to the 8000 miles or so the Air Force One can travel without refueling.

Kim’s own state plane, Chammae-1 (named after the national bird), has been in use since long before he was born. Other high ranking officials including Kim’s own sister, Kim Yo-jong, fly internationally on Chammae-2.

North Korean officials reportedly pushed for the first round of talks to be held in Pyongyang. This was interpreted by many in the West as a fear of their long-distance flying capabilities.

When Kim met with Trump for the Singapore Summit in 2018 he arrived on a 747 operated by Air China (not quite in agreement with the North Korean philosophy of Juche, extreme self-reliance). Because of its mixed-use as a passenger jet and supreme leader transport vehicle, it was reported to have had no artillery defense system.

It doesn’t seem that North Korea has ever used a helicopter as an aerial means of dictatorial transportation.