Passenger train service between Pyongyang and Moscow has resumed after a five-year suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to Russia’s state TASS news agency Thursday, a passenger train that departed the North Korean capital on Tuesday last week arrived at Yaroslavsky Station in Moscow on Thursday.

A North Korean railway official who arrived on the train reportedly said there were no passengers in the carriage yet, only the conductors, but that they were thrilled to resume service on the route. 

It was the first train to travel the Pyongyang-Moscow route since February 2020, when service was suspended due to the pandemic. 

In December, North Korea and Russia also resumed train operations linking the North’s Tumen River Station and Russia’s Khasan Station.