input: from typing import List
  
  def get_countries_from_json() -> List[str]:
      """ Loads a list of countries from a JSON file and returns them as a list.
      >>> get_countries_from_json()
      ['Afghanistan', 'Albania', 'Algeria', ...]
      """
output:     import json
      with open('countries.json', 'r') as file:
          countries = json.load(file)
      return countries