The Russian Foreign Ministry said eight embassy staffers used a handcar to ferry their children and luggage across the Tumen River that separates the two neighbouring countries.
"First they travelled 32 hours by train, then two hours by bus to the border where the toughest stretch began … They made a handcar in advance, placed it on the track, loaded it with luggage, helped children onto the board and off they went," it said.
The ministry posted photos on social media showing the merry travellers, three of them children as young as three. They were welcomed in the Russian border station of Khasan and bused to the airport in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok.