Because Of COVID-19 Pandemic, Russian Diplomats Return Home By Trolley From North Korea

Russian diplomats use push trolleys across the North Korea-Russia border. (Russian Foreign Ministry - МИД России)

JAKARTA - The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many countries to close their borders to prevent the spread of cross-border crossers. This also applies to North Korea, which closes and maintains tight borders.

The closure of this border apparently makes Russian diplomats who are about to return to the Red Bear Country, do not lose their will. They have a unique way of 'circumventing' the closure of the North Korea-Russia border.

According to Euronews, eight employees of the Russian Embassy in North Korea and their families, including a three-year-old child, were depicted traveling on a hand-pushed rail trolley.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a Facebook post the diplomat group had embarked on a long and arduous journey home by Thursday.

"The border has been closed for more than a year and passenger traffic has stopped", the ministry said.

They reportedly started their journey on a 32-hour train ride from Pyongyang, followed by a two-hour bus ride. The group then traveled in a trolley being pushed across the Russia-North Korea border.

A viral video also shows several members of the group smiling and screaming at the camera as they push a trolley over a railway bridge across the Tumannaya River, which divides North Korea and Russia.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the trolley was pushed along the tracks for more than one kilometer by the Embassy's Third Secretary, Vladislav Sorokin, who acted as the 'engine '.

"At the Russian Khasan border station, our people met colleagues from the Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vladivostok and a bus provided by the Primorsky Territory administration, which escorts compatriots returning home via Vladivostok airport", added the post on Facebook.

The Interfax news agency reported on Friday that the group then flew to Moscow from Vladivostok.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the diplomats' work was "tough and thorny, adding that situations such as hand-driven wagon travel are quite possible".

Russia, which has close ties to North Korea, has maintained a significant diplomatic presence in the country, which has long suffered from severe food shortages.

Meanwhile, North Korea claims, despite international skepticism, to be free of COVID-19, even though it closed its borders in January 2020 and has stopped traffic.