[ad_1]
In normal times, most diplomats can expect to end a foreign assignment with an official, if not always affectionate, farewell from their hosts and a comfortable journey back to their home country.
But for a group of Russian envoys and their families, the coronavirus pandemic meant there was only one way home: under their own power on a hand-pushed railway tram.
TO video clip shows some members of the group smiling and yelling for the camera as they push the cart over the bridge that crosses the Tumen River, which divides North Korea and Russia.
A still image captures the cart, laden with suitcases, as it traverses the North Korean winter countryside.
New newspaper
(@novaya_gazeta)According to the Foreign Ministry, the diplomats traveled 32 hours by train, then another two hours by bus to the border and then a kilometer on foot by highway.
➡️ https://t.co/jc6KmEOxhx
Video: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia pic.twitter.com/K8UPWUrKev
A more conventional exit from North Korea has not been possible since the country closed its land borders and banned international air travel early in the pandemic.
The country continues to insist, with widespread skepticism, that it has not recorded a single case of Covid-19, although it has reportedly quarantined tens of thousands of people in an attempt to prevent an outbreak.
“Since the borders have been closed for more than a year and passenger traffic has stopped, it took a long and difficult journey to get home,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a post on social media. .
The group of eight, including a three-year-old boy, traveled 32 hours by train and two hours by bus from the North Korean capital Pyongyang to reach the Russian border on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry added.
The name of the ministry verified the third secretary of the embassy, Vladislav Sorokin, as the “motor” of the tram after he pushed it for more than a kilometer.
The group used the tram to cover the short and final leg of the journey across the border and were greeted by officials on the Russian side before traveling by bus to Vladivostok airport.
[ad_2]
