A group of Russian diplomats and their families was forced to take extreme measures to get out of North Korea, overcoming a 32-hour train and bus trip on Thursday by pushing a self-propelled tram over the last eight hundred meters to the Russian border. Video of the group of eight, including some children, walking with their luggage on top of an outdoor wagon run over the internet. “As the borders have been closed for more than a year and communication with passengers has been interrupted, it has been a long and difficult way to get home,” explained the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a Facebook post.
The group of Russians was stationed in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, as part of the country’s diplomatic mission; Russia is one of the few nations with a remaining presence in the closed state. With few options to leave the country after North Korea closed its borders completely last year due to the pandemic, interrupting the movement of entry and exit, the Russian delegation embarked on an arduous journey through the north of the country to the Russian border. “They needed to prepare the cart in advance, put it on the tracks, put the luggage, sit the children and leave. … They had to push the entire train assembly over a kilometer, ”said the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the trip.
The final leg of the trip included pushing the self-propelled wheelbarrow over a bridge across the Tumen River, which forms the border between the two countries. The group was received by Russian officials at the Siberian border crossing and taken to Vladivostok, in the far east of the country.