Moscow – A group of Russian citizens, including a diplomat and his family, used a hand-pushed railway cart to cross North Koreaborder back in their country of origin, said Russia’s Foreign Ministry. North Korea closed its borders about a year ago, suspending transport ties with its neighbors due to the spread COVID-19.
North Korea borders Russia in the eastern part of the isolated country, but there are currently no trains running between the countries. This did not stop the group of Russians, who used the stroller to cross the border with numerous suitcases and small children.
Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The eight-member group included the embassy’s third secretary, Vladislav Sorokin, and his family, including his 3-year-old daughter Varvara, the foreign ministry said on Thursday in a Twitter post.
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 to the Russian side,” the post says.
The cart had been made in advance for that trip and put on the rails. Sorokin was the main “engine” that had to push the loaded cart more than half a kilometer. The Foreign Ministry posted a video with the group crossing a bridge over the Tumen River, which separates the two countries.
On the Russian side, they were greeted by local Foreign Ministry officials. The party had to make another bus trip to the nearest airport in Vladivostok. The state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Friday that they went to Moscow.
In the past, the railway was used by the northern leader, Kim Jong Un, and his father, Kim Jong Il, for their visits to Russia on armored family train.
Despite months of negotiations with the North Korean government, the stroller was the only direct way approved for Russians to return home, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told 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, told reporters on Friday.