Due to closed borders, it is impossible to leave the DPRK either by train or by plane. Russian diplomats found a solution - they returned home on a handcar

North Korea, the most closed country in the world, has become even more closed due to the pandemic. For several months now, even cargo vital for the country's economy has hardly been allowed to pass through the borders - and there is no talk of passenger transportation in such a situation at all.

With the onset of the pandemic, most foreign diplomats, including Russian ones, left the DPRK. Those who remain have to comply with the most severe restrictions - they cannot travel outside Pyongyang, as well as visit public places and use public transport.

At the end of February, a group of eight employees of the Russian Embassy in North Korea and their families decided to return to their homeland. First, they traveled 32 hours by train, then two hours by bus to the nearest settlement with the border. The border between Russia and North Korea runs along the Tumannaya River; there are no automobile and pedestrian bridges across it - only one railway. And in order to cross the river in the absence of trains, the diplomats had to push the trolley. “[It was necessary] to make a trolley in advance, put it on rails, place things on it, seat the children, and go,” the Russian Foreign Ministry wrote in his Telegram account.

The diplomats traveled more than one kilometer on a trolley. The journey ended successfully - on the Russian side, the Russians were met by employees of the Foreign Ministry representative office in Vladivostok. The diplomats who returned from North Korea were taken to the airport on a bus provided by the administration of Primorsky Krai.