(rshsdepot) Riding the Rails With Kim

["Jim Dent" <james.dent_@_itochu.com>]

Not depot related, but interesting, from the Moscow Times (!)...

Monday, Jul. 30, 2001. Page 9

Riding the Rails With Kim

By Russell Working

 To Our Readers
Has something you've read here startled you? Are you angry, excited, puzz=
led
or pleased? Do you have ideas to improve our coverage?
Then please write to us.
All we ask is that you include your full name, the name of the city from
which you are writing and a contact telephone number in case we need to g=
et
in touch.
We look forward to hearing from you.

Email the Opinion Page Editor

VLADIVOSTOK, Far East =97 When you ride on the Trans-Siberian Railroad fr=
om
this Pacific seaport to Moscow, you spend a week traveling more than 9,00=
0
kilometers with strangers who haven't bathed since the day they lugged th=
eir
suitcases to the station.

You share a compartment with three other passengers, sleeping on a mattre=
ss
rolled out on a padded bench. Irritable conductors sometimes keep one toi=
let
locked for their own use, creating lines at the other. Those who can't
afford the dining car often end up surviving on flyspecked drumsticks or
cabbage pies sold by vendors at stops along the way.

No doubt this is why Kim Jong-il, North Korea's "dear leader" and godlike
head of state, decided to forgo the Trans-Siberian and travel in his own
train during his state visit to Russia.

Kim is heading from Pyongyang to Moscow in a 21-wagon, Japanese-built
armored train, preceded by two separate locomotives "in case there are mi=
nes
or something," a Federal Security Service agent told reporters.

But as many foreign travelers over the years will attest, Russian trains
offer a rare chance to glimpse the heart of a great nation. There is stil=
l
time for Kim to reconsider and make the return trip on the Trans-Siberian=
=2E

Perhaps Kim recalls me. I was on the No. 8 rolling from Birobidzhan to
Vladivostok on Thursday, and we pulled off on a spur south of Khabarovsk =
so
his special armored train could flash by. We probably looked uncomfortabl=
e.
It was a hot night, and children in their underwear were hanging out the
windows. Most of the men, shirts off, were swigging from beer bottles. I =
was
the guy with the farmer's tan who was swatting the mosquitoes that swarme=
d
through the open windows, attracted by the reading lamps.

"What's the delay?" somebody asked.

The conductress said, "I just saw this armored train, and they say it's t=
hat
Korean bigwig's."

But Kim should not be put off by appearances. Trans-Siberian carriages,
though stuffy, are better ventilated while moving. There were no mosquito=
es
until we stopped. And the woman on the bunk across from me washed her fee=
t
minutes after Kim's train roared by, greatly improving the air in our
compartment. I am sure I speak for other travelers when I say we all woul=
d
have been happy to freshen up if told the general secretary of the Korean
Workers Party would be boarding.

Kim is just the kind of person who would cherish a journey on the
Trans-Siberian. He told Itar-Tass last week that his hobbies include "goi=
ng
among the people and soldiers and =85 talking with them and sharing their
feelings. I also like reading and music."

A train offers opportunities for going among all sorts of people. At
mealtime, you can share sausage, canned fish and a bottle of vodka with a
Mongolian trader or a cheerful alcoholic, who turns out to be head of a
regional anti-organized crime unit. Any second-class car is full of soldi=
ers
who would love to hear a foreign statesman's ruminations on Marxist-Lenin=
ist
implications of hazing.

For a literary man, trains mean reading time. Possibly Kim =97 like two N=
orth
Korean guest workers I saw at a newspaper kiosk in the Birobidzhan Statio=
n =97
might enjoy thumbing through colorful publications that are unavailable i=
n
Pyongyang, such as one featuring naked women in handcuffs and a policeman
with a whip.

Kim's musical interests could also be accommodated. The train's loudspeak=
er
system periodically plays pleasing tunes, including the theme to "The
Godfather." Indeed, if he had been willing to share a bottle of Johnny
Walker Red with the American oilmen I met on a train several years ago, h=
e
might have found himself joining in singing, "Wild thing/ you make my hea=
rt
sing/ you make everything groovy."

Security, of course, is always a concern for heads of state choosing
unconventional travel. When Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nassar trekked=
 to
Morocco by dune buggy in 1956, a camel caravan had to go ahead of him,
clearing the Sahara of land mines.

And the French navy blockaded the North Atlantic of shipping traffic for =
the
better part of a month in 1967 when Charles de Gaulle kayaked to Quebec.

But Russians are a gracious people, and I know the passengers in my train
would have been willing to be inconvenienced if it meant they could share=
 a
compartment with Kim Jong-il. Just as long as he washes his feet.


Russell Working is a freelance journalist based in Vladivostok.

------------------------------