MOSCOW – Eight Russian diplomats and their families became unlikely sensations on social media on Friday after crossing the border with North Korea in a hand-pushed wagon.
With borders closed and travel restricted due to Covid-19, diplomats were forced to abandon any hope of receiving red carpet treatment when leaving Pyongyang and instead follow an elaborate and unusual method of returning home.
After a 32-hour train ride and a two-hour bus ride to an area closer to the border, they pushed their tram loaded with children and luggage along the final 1 km stretch that separates the two countries.
“The most important part of the route was a pedestrian crossing to the Russian side,” said the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a Facebook post.
“They needed to prepare the cart in advance, put it on the tracks, put the luggage, accommodate the children and then leave … They had to push the whole assembly by rail for more than a kilometer,” he added.
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The trip included crossing a railway bridge over the Tumen River, a body of water that serves as a natural border between North Korea and Russia, as well as China.
The third secretary of the Russian embassy, Vladislav Sorokin, was the “engine” of the handcart, according to the ministry. The youngest passenger was his three-year-old daughter, Varya.
The video shows the two being welcomed on the Russian side by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who greet them when they finish their journey through the mountainous and arid landscape. From there, they were taken to Vladivostok, the largest city in Russia’s Far East, located along the Pacific coast.
“We don’t leave ours,” concluded the ministry’s statement.
Already one of the most isolated countries in the world before the Covid-19 pandemic, North Korea closed its doors even more strongly in an effort to fight the virus.
Last year, it severely restricted air and rail connections with neighboring China and Russia – the two nations that probably have the most normalized border contacts with Pyongyang.
Russia’s mission in Pyongyang was one of the few that remained with some staff presence. Most embassies were fully closed at the beginning of last year, with teams on North Korean charter.
North Korea has not released Covid’s internal figures and very little is known about the pandemic within the closed country.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rarely approached the pandemic head-on, but he delivered an unusual and tearful apology to the North Korean people last October for failing them during this crisis – perhaps indicating that the country has been hit hard more than it looks.
“Our people placed their trust in me, as high as the sky and as deep as the sea, but I failed to always live satisfactorily,” he said at the time, according to the Korean Times.
“I’m really sorry about that.”
Russia has historically maintained relations with North Korea, with which it borders. The two countries had normal trade relations before the pandemic, and North Korean workers in Russia’s Far East were not heard.