China invited world leaders to its capital, Beijing, recently to celebrate the 85th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in the second world war. Western leaders were notably absent. But despite the presence of many other leaders, such as Russian president Vladimir Putin, it was the arrival of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un that seemed to attract most international media attention.

This was Kim’s fifth visit to China since he assumed power in 2011 – the last was in 2019 before the COVID pandemic. And it was the first time he had attended a multilateral international meeting.

Kim travelled to Beijing by train – an armoured train at that. Although he does not seem to have the fear of flying his father had, it is not the first time Kim has used a train to travel overseas. In 2019, he went to Hanoi in Vietnam – a much longer journey – to meet US president Donald Trump the same way.

The train allows for a large entourage and provides an opportunity to prepare for meetings. It may also be more secure than the country’s aircraft after some years of no or little use due to the pandemic and the effective sealing off of North Korea from most of the rest of the world.

Aside from the travel preferences of its leadership, here are three things we learned about North Korea from the summit in Beijing.

Kim was accompanied not by his wife, Ri Sol-ju, who was with him on at least one previous visit to........

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