Moscow – A group of Russian citizens, including a diplomat and his family, used a hand-pushed train car to cross North Korea‘s border back to their homeland, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said. North Korea closed its borders about a year ago and suspended transport links with its neighbors due to the spread of COVID-19
North Korea shares a border with Russia in the far east of the isolated rogue state, but there are currently no trains running between the countries. This did not stop the group of Russians, who crossed the border with their many suitcases and small children by trolley.
Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The group of eight included the embassy’s third secretary, Vladislav Sorokin, and his family, including 3-year-old daughter Varvara, the State Department said in a message on Twitter Thursday.
They had to travel “32 hours by train, then another two hours by bus to the border and finally the most important part of the route – on foot to the Russian side,” the post said.
The trolley was specially made for that trip in advance and placed on the rails. Sorokin was the main “engine” to push the loaded trolley for over half a mile. The State Department posted a video of the group crossing a bridge over the River Tumen, which separates the two countries.
On the Russian side, they were greeted by local officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The party had to take another bus ride to the nearest airport in Vladivostok. State news agency RIA Novosti reported on Friday that they had gone to Moscow.
In the past, the railway was used by the leader of the North, Kim Jong Un, and his father, Kim Jong Il, for their visits to Russia family armored train
Despite months of negotiations with the North Korean government, the trolley was the only approved direct way for the Russians to return home, State Department spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told FM radio station Kommersant on Friday.
The only other option would be to return through China, which includes a three-week quarantine, she said.
“Diplomatic service is very tricky, it can be very difficult,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, himself a former diplomat, told reporters.