Crossing the border pushing a railroad trolley

International travel now involves pushing a railroad trolley on deserted tracks to get out of the country.

The country is North Korea, the destination Russia.

It took 8 Russian diplomats eight hours to hand push their trolley packed with luggage and your children home into Mother Russia.

The North Korean Government had sealed off its borders due to COVID-19 and international flights, including on Air Koryo between Vladivostok and Pyongyang had been suspended some time ago.

On their website, the Russian Embassy praised its good relationship with the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, known as North Korea in stating:

The DPRK is a good long-standing partner of ours. The glorious traditions of friendship and cooperation established during the war years have provided a reliable basis for strengthening and developing relations between Moscow and Pyongyang. It is in our best interest to ensure that the Korean peninsula bordering our Far East is peninsular of good neighborliness and mutually beneficial cooperation.

According to a report on CNN, the Russian Embassy said on its verified Facebook page. that the journey began by train.

The Russians spent 32 hours traveling on North Korea’s old, poorly maintained and notoriously slow rail system. They then rode a bus for two hours to the border, where the families needed to order a railroad trolley for their luggage and push it the rest of the way.

A trolley, also known as a handcart, is a type of railroad car popularized in the 1800s that is powered by its passengers through the use of a pump action lever, or by people manually pushing the car from behind.

According to CNN, the Embassy posted two pictures of third secretary Vladislav Sorokin pushing his family and their luggage along the rail tracks while wearing thick winter clothing. The youngest of the crew was Sorokin’s 3-year-old daughter Varya. Sorokin had to push the handcart for a kilometer (0.6 miles), part of which included a bridge over the Tumen River that separates Russia from North Korea.

Once the family reached the Russian station of Khasan, they were met by colleagues in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who helped them get to the airport in Vladivostok.

Flights between Vladivostok and Moscow are operating.