PYONGYANG, April 14. /TASS/. A quarantine in North Korea remains very strict although positive changes are in sight, including for foreign diplomats, Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora said in an interview with TASS on Wednesday.

"Weddings are permitted while newlyweds (so far the only exception!) are allowed not to wear masks during the ceremony. Children are gradually permitted to go outside, for half an hour before and after dinner but only in the yard near the building. There is talk that classes at schools will finally resume beginning on April 19," the diplomat said.

"For foreigners who are being protected here against COVID even more, it seems, than own citizens, there are also relaxations [of some requirements] - the park on Mount Moranbong is open for visits, we were allowed to play tennis at the diplomats’ club. I hope this process will continue," the ambassador noted.

A difficult time

According to the Russian ambassador, the "blockade" caused by the coronavirus pandemic did not become the most difficult trial for Russian diplomats: veterans remember the time when after the break-up of the Soviet Union the diplomatic mission also wasn't rotating its staff or letting them go on vacations, but then salaries were not being paid and there was an acute shortage of food products and pharmaceuticals.

The ambassador thinks that the Russian diplomats in North Korea are much better off than other foreigners. "On the territory of 7 hectares we have a large autonomous complex with everything necessary for work and life, including a school, exercise facilities, a kindergarten, and an infirmary - nobody else has something like this in Pyongyang. So, as opposed to other diplomatic missions, we managed to almost completely retain our staff," he said.

However, the ambassador noted that in the near future there will be fewer Russian diplomats in Pyongyang. "Due to family circumstances and due to the end of tours of duty doctors and teachers will leave. If schools don’t open, children will return home, which means their parents will return as well. It is hard to say when new employees will arrive. Everything points to the fact that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea that became the first to close its borders, will be the last to open them," the diplomat stressed.

"We can adapt to the changed circumstances," the ambassador noted. Yet for now, the Russian diplomats have to change their habits: for example, coffee which "one hasn’t been able to buy here for a while" is now replaced "with a mug of very decent local tea.".