Eight Russian diplomats and family members — the youngest of them a three-year-old girl — on Thursday left North Korea on a hand-pushed rail trolley due to Pyongyang’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Video posted on the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ verified Telegram account showed the scene as the trolley, laden with suitcases and women, was pushed across a border railway bridge by Russian Third Secretary Vladislav Sorokin.
The group waved and cheered as they made the final approach toward their homeland, the culmination of an expedition that began with a 32-hour train ride from Pyongyang, followed by a two-hour bus ride to the border.
“It took a long and difficult journey to get home,” the ministry said in the post, describing how and why the group left on the trolley.
MAIN ‘ENGINE’
“Finally, the most important part of the route — walking on foot to the Russian side,” it said.
“To do this, you need to make a trolley in advance, put it on the rails, place things on it, seat the children — and go,” it added.
Sorokin, the only man in the group, was “the main ‘engine’ of the non-self-propelled railcar,” it said, and had to push it for more than 1km.
Once on Russian territory they were met by foreign ministry colleagues and were taken — by bus — to Vladivostok International Airport.
“Don’t leave your own behind,” the ministry added as a hashtag.
LOCKED OUT
North Korea imposed a strict border shutdown in January last year to try to protect itself from COVID-19.
The shutdown has canceled all flights in or out of the nuclear-armed, sanctions-hit country, and cross-border trains.
With staff and supplies unable to enter the country, the restrictions have severely hampered the activities of diplomats and aid workers, and several Western embassies have pulled out their entire staff.
Russia has close relations with North Korea and maintains a significant diplomatic presence.
Stalin’s Soviet Union played a key role in North Korea’s foundation after it and the US decided to split the peninsula into two zones on either side of the 38th parallel following the World War II surrender of Korea’s colonial occupier Japan.
Moscow still has a grand embassy in a prime spot in central Pyongyang, close to the North Korean leadership compound.
‘RETURN YOUR CART’
The group that left on the trolley were being repatriated home.
In South Korea, people online reacted gleefully to reports of how the diplomats departed.
“I am glad I was not born in North Korea,” one posted on South Korea’s biggest Internet portal, Naver.
“Please return your cart to where you found it,” another wrote
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