The eight staff members and Family members of the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang have a particularly profound experience of how much effort it takes to leave North Korea, not to mention the defectors, but even diplomats. It took them more than 34 hours to finally reach their wish to return Home.
According to CNN News 26, at least one of the diplomats had no choice but to push a dolly on rails with their young children and a large pile of luggage, which took a lot of effort to cross the border back to Russia.
Kim Jong-un’s regime has effectively sealed the border to prevent the arrival of the Chinese Communist virus. Although North Korea’s national airline, Air Koryo, has flights to Vladivostok in eastern Russia, they have also been grounded for several months as a precautionary measure against the outbreak. The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Facebook that the embassy staff and their families had gone through a lot of trouble to get home because the border had been closed for more than a year.
They first took a train, which took 32 hours, cattle prodding toward their goal, and then a bus, which took 2 hours to continue. However, they were still about 1 kilometer from the border when Vladislav Sorokin, Third Secretary of the Russian Embassy, pushed a rail dolly across the bridge over the Tumen River and entered the border, arriving in the border town of Khasan, where he was greeted by Foreign Ministry colleagues and then boarded a bus to Vladivostok airport.
The Russian diplomats and their families left the DPRK on February 25 on a railroad cart, finally fulfilling their wish to return home.
Railroad dollies, which were very popular in the 1800s, moved forward either by the occupants pushing a lever up and down manually or by a person pushing from behind.
The Russian Embassy posted two photos of Sorokin in heavy winter clothes, pushing his family and luggage along. The youngest is his 3-year-old daughter, Varya.
With the return of these Russian diplomats and their families, it means that Pyongyang has even fewer people abroad. Diplomats, aid workers and NGO workers have all opted to leave the country to avoid being immobilized by the strict and tough border controls. Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora said that according to foreigners who have chosen to stay in the country, the situation in Pyongyang is getting worse, with grocery stores running out of Food and people losing their jobs.
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