BEIJING SNAPSHOT: N. Korea not at Games but diplomat remains

By DAKE KANG
Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — As skaters and sledders vie for medals at the Beijing Olympics, another extraordinary event is quietly unfolding on nine acres in the city’s embassy district. Here, in rows of concrete grey buildings, hundreds of North Koreans are enduring perhaps the longest-running pandemic-enforced separation in the world. The isolationist Communist state has sealed off its borders so tightly that they’ve left their own ambassador to China stranded in Beijing. Two sources familiar with the matter say Ji Jae-Ryong, 79, has been apart from his family for years even though his replacement arrived last February.