OPINION - Editorial

OPINION | EDITORIAL: The great escape

It sounds like something out of a western, if such a thing could exist in North Korea. Then again, "Quigley Down Under" was a western set in Australia. So who knows? This particular story involves Russians and handcars, also known as pump trolleys.

A group of Russian diplomats made the choice to leave North Korea, which is always a smart move. But they ran into a little trouble getting home thanks to the pandemic.

"Eight employees of Russia's Embassy in Pyongyang and their families spent more than 34 hours trying to leave North Korea this week," CNN reports, "a grueling trip that ended with at least one diplomat pushing his luggage and young children on a railway trolley into Russian territory.

"North Korea's borders have been effectively locked down for months as part of the Kim Jong Un regime's efforts to keep covid-19 at bay, stranding the few diplomats operating inside Pyongyang. North Korean state-owned airline Air Koryo operates flights from Vladivostok in eastern Russia, but those flights have also been suspended for months."

Spending 34 hours at all in North Korea sounds awful. But 34 hours in line to leave it?

With covid, North Korea somehow found a way to become even more isolated than before. Using an old-time pump trolley to get around reminds us of "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" or a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

Once the diplomats arrived in Khasan, Russia, they were taken to an airport for the rest of the trip home. (They could literally use the phrase, "I just flew in from Khasan, and boy are my arms tired.")

Normally you have to quarantine for 10-14 days when you arrive home from another country. But we're not sure what the protocol is when you leave an isolated nation ruled by a dictator via push cart.

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