North Korea wipes off traces of Kim Jong Un after Beijing meeting with Putin
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The chair’s backrest and armrests were scrubbed, and a coffee table next to Mr Kim’s chair was also cleaned.
PHOTOS: SCREENGRAB FROM YUNASHEV_LIVE/TELEGRAM
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SEOUL - After North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing, North Korean staff carefully wiped down items touched by the country’s supreme leader in what analysts say is part of a suite of security measures to counter foreign spies.
Even with the appearance of a budding friendship between Mr Kim and Mr Putin, footage on Sept 3 showed the reclusive state’s extraordinary measures to conceal any clues about Mr Kim’s health.
In a post on Telegram, Kremlin reporter Alexander Yunashev shared footage of Mr Kim’s staff meticulously cleaning the room in the Chinese capital where Mr Kim and Mr Putin met for more than two hours.
The chair’s backrest and armrests were scrubbed, and a coffee table next to Mr Kim’s chair was also cleaned. His drinking glass was also removed.
“After the negotiations were over, the staff accompanying the head of the DPRK carefully destroyed all traces of Kim’s presence,” the reporter said. DPRK is short for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
After talks in the room, Mr Kim and Mr Putin left for a tea meeting and bade a warm farewell to each other.
As with previous foreign trips, Mr Kim packed his own toilet on a signature green train that took him to Beijing
Such measures have been standard protocol since the era of Mr Kim’s predecessor, his father Kim Jong Il, said Mr Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the US-based Stimson Centre.
“The special toilet and the requisite garbage bags of detritus, waste and cigarette butts are so that a foreign intelligence agency, even a friendly one, does not acquire a sample and test it,” Mr Madden said.
“It would provide insight into any medical conditions affecting Kim Jong Un. This can include hair and skin tags.”
In 2019, after a Hanoi summit with US President Donald Trump, Mr Kim’s guards were spotted blocking the floor of his hotel room to clean the room for hours and taking out items, including a bed mattress.
Mr Kim’s team has also been spotted meticulously cleaning items before he uses them.
During his 2018 meeting with then South Korean President Moon Jae-in, North Korean security guards sprayed a chair and a desk with sanitiser and wiped it down before Mr Kim sat on it.
At another summit with Mr Putin in 2023, Mr Kim’s security team wiped his chair down with disinfectant and vigorously checked to make sure the chair was safe, with one guard using a metal detector to scan the seat, video footage showed. REUTERS
