After a four-year hiatus, Russia has quietly resumed postal services to North Korea, marking a modest but symbolically significant development in the hermit kingdom’s limited connections to the outside world.
The Russian postal service announced this week that package deliveries to North Korea have officially restarted, with individuals and businesses now able to send parcels up to 20 kilograms. The service promises delivery from Moscow to Pyongyang within 15 days, routing packages by air to Vladivostok before North Korean partner airlines complete the journey.
While this might seem like routine postal news, it represents something more meaningful in the context of North Korea’s extreme isolation. The service was suspended in 2020 during the pandemic when North Korea sealed its borders so tightly that even essential trade nearly ceased. The country’s mail system became another casualty of its zero-COVID policy, which was among the world’s most severe.
The resumption, which began with trial runs in May, offers a small window into North Korea’s gradual, cautious emergence from its pandemic isolation. It also reflects the deepening ties between Moscow and Pyongyang, as both nations find themselves increasingly isolated from Western economies due to sanctions.
