A group of Russian diplomats and their families were forced to take extreme measures to get out of North Korea and on Thursday put off a 32-hour train and bus ride by pushing a self-propelled train car the last half mile to the Russian border. Video of the group of eight, including some children, shooting with their luggage on top of the outdoor train car on the internet. “As the borders were closed for more than a year and passenger communications were stopped, it was a long and difficult way to get home,” the Russian Foreign Ministry explained in a Facebook report.
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 countries with a residual presence in the closed state. With few options to get out of the country after North Korea closed its borders completely last year due to the pandemic, which stopped the movement inside and out, the Russian delegation has a difficult journey through the north of the country to the Russian border undertaken. ‘They had to prepare the wagon in advance, put it on the track, put the luggage, put the children in and then leave. “They had to drive the whole assembly more than a kilometer by rail,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said of the trip.
The last ride of the trip was, among other things, to push the self-propelled handcart over a bridge that crosses the Tumen River, which forms the border between the two countries. The group was greeted at the Siberian border crossing by Russian officials and taken to Vladivostok in the far east of the country.