Group of Russian diplomats and their families had to leave North Korea by pushing a railway car

A group of Russian diplomats and their relatives used a hand-pushed wagon to leave North Korea this week., in the middle of Strict anti-coronavirus measures imposed by Pyongyang, which include the blocking of most modes of passenger transport across borders.

North Korea reported no confirmed coronavirus cases, but imposed crippling border closures, with bans on most international travel and severe restrictions on travel within the country.

“With borders closed for over a year and passenger traffic stopped, it took a long and difficult journey home.”Russian Foreign Ministry said in a social media post.

The group of eight people, including a only 3 year old boy, trip 32 hours by train and 2 hours by bus from Pyongyang only to reach the Russian border on Thursday, the Kremlin reported.

They then had to cross the border on foot, loading luggage and passengers into a tram on the tracks.

Photos and videos released by the ministry show the car, loaded with brightly colored bags and suitcases, being pushed through a wintry landscape.

The third secretary of the embassy, Vladislav Sorokin, was the Tram “engine”the ministry noted, pushing him to more than a kilometer, including by a railway bridge over the Tumen River, which separates the two countries.

Ministry officials met the group at a border post on the Russian side, where they then traveled by bus to Vladivostok airport.

Over the past year, the number of foreign diplomats in North Korea has declined, with him closure of many Western embassies, citing bans on staff turnover. Those who left often had to negotiate for weeks to make special arrangements for leaving.

Diplomats, aid workers and NGO staff have chosen to leave North Korea rather than risk being stranded due to the tight and stringent border controls in the country. The foreigners who chose to stay described a increasingly serious situation in Pyongyang, with grocery stores running out of food and people losing their jobs, according to the Russian ambassador to North Korea, Alexandre matsegora.

The diplomat said that imports to North Korea have almost completely ceased since devastating typhoons hit the Korean peninsula last September. “The North Korean leader has openly admitted that there is no comprehensive medical infrastructure here that meets modern requirements and is capable of dealing with this problem.”he said in an interview with the Russian news agency Interfax.

“Life has not been easy for us in Pyongyang”, Matsegora revealed. “During the months of self-insulation, the stock available on the shelves was reduced to a minimum. It’s a challenge to buy even basic items like pasta, flour, vegetable oil, and sugar, and there are no decent clothes or shoes. If something can be bought, it usually costs three to four times as much as before the crisis“, He assured.

(With information from Reuters)

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