Moscow A group of Russian citizens, including a diplomat and his family, handcuffed a railway car to cross North Koreaborder back to their homeland, the Russian 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 eastern part of the isolated rogue nation, but there are currently no trains between the countries. This did not stop the group of Russians, who used the trolley to cross the border with their many suitcases and children.
Russian Foreign Ministry
The group of eight included the third secretary of the embassy, Vladislav Sorokin, and his family, including the three-year-old daughter Varvara, the foreign ministry said on Twitter on 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 – walking on foot to the Russian side ‘, the post said.
The trolley was pre-made specifically for that trip and placed on the tracks. Sorokin was the main ‘engine’ that had to push the loaded trolley for more than half a kilometer. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has posted a video of the group crossing a bridge over the Tumen River, which separates the two countries.
On the Russian side, they were greeted by local officials. The party had to take another bus ride to the nearest airport in Vladivostok. The state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Friday that they had gone to Moscow.
In the past, the leader of the North was used by the railway, Kim Jong Un, and his father, Kim Jong Il, for their visits to Russia on the 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, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, told radio station Kommersant FM on Friday.
The only other option would be to return through China, which includes a three-week quarantine there, she said.
“Diplomatic service is very thorny, it can be very difficult,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, a former diplomat himself, told reporters.