Should anyone be surprised that the Dear Leader turned dearly departed aboard a train carriage? A somewhat outdated mode of transport, forever travelling the same route where the passengers’ conditions are predetermined according to class: in many ways, North Korea is a train. Certainly, transit by locomotive is one of the few means by which foreigners will see, albeit in snatches, the real DPRK.

In November 2003, the real DPRK appeared to resemble a rather dour water colour as I gazed out of a ‘soft sleeper’ carriage en route to the border city of Sinuiju.  North Korea in winter is