Russia’s ambassador in Pyongyang said life is difficult in North Korea but there is no famine and some cross-border shipments may resume soon.

This comes a week after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared the country was facing a “worst-ever situation.”

Last week, Kim called on ruling party officials to wage another “Arduous March” of work and sacrifice, linking the current economic crises to a period in the 1990s of disaster and famine.

Russia’s ambassador, one of the few foreign envoys in the country, said that while it was unclear exactly what Kim meant the current situation could not be compared to that period.

“Thank god, it is a long shot from the Arduous March, and I hope it would never come to that,” Ambassador Alexander Matsegora told Russia’s TASS news agency according to a transcript published on Wednesday.

“The most important thing is that there is no famine in the country today.”

Government mismanagement, floods, sanctions and a border lockdown have hobbled North Korea’s economy, with the United Nations warning of potential food shortages and other humanitarian disasters.

According to Matsegora, imported goods had effectively disappeared from store shelves, but most domestic products were still available and prices had only increased moderately.

Foreign diplomats are typically constrained in where they can travel around North Korea, and it was unclear whether Matsegora’s comments applied to areas outside of the relatively prosperous capital Pyongyang.

For the past year, trade that was already constrained by international sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons slowed to a trickle under self-imposed border closures aimed at preventing a COVID-19 outbreak.

Matsegora said international aid has been stuck in warehouses on the Chinese side of the border, but North Korea was building “large disinfection complexes” which would soon be completed.

“There is information that this work will finally be completed by the end of April, after which the flow of goods should be restored,” he added.

Cross-border freight traffic could resume “in the near future,” he noted, but passenger travel would only be allowed when the pandemic was resolved at a global level.

After months of North Korean cargo vessels idling at sea, shipping operations had returned to pre-pandemic lows as of early April, according an analysis published on Wednesday by NK Pro, a website that tracks North Korea.