(American Military News/Radio Free Asia)
As the year-end deadline under United Nations sanctions to return home draws near for North Korean workers in Russia, train tickets between the Moscow and Pyongyang are selling out.
The sanctions, aimed at depriving Pyongyang of resources that could be funneled into its missile and nuclear programs mandate that no new work visas are to be issued to North Koreans to work abroad, and all current workers must return to North Korea by late December.
Sources within Russia say that North Korean workers have begun returning home in large groups from as far away as the Russian capital.
“Tickets for the international train running between Pyongyang and Moscow are sold out for the rest of the year,” a Russian citizen of Korean descent from Ussuriysk told RFA’s Korean Service Sunday. Ussuriysk is located to the north of Vladivostok in the Russian Far East. Both are relatively close to the North Korean border. Read more