After a rare Beijing meeting with Vladimir Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's team meticulously erased any sign of his presence, according to a Kremlin reporter. Video shared online showed aides cleaning the chair Kim used, scrubbing both the backrest and the armrests, and ensuring his drinking glass and other items were removed after the leaders' two-hour discussion, highlighting Pyongyang's secretive security protocols, per Reuters. Observers note this is not unusual for Kim's foreign visits. He routinely travels with his own toilet—reportedly to prevent any foreign agency, hostile or allied, from collecting waste and analyzing it for health clues.
North Korea leadership expert Michael Madden explains the protocols, which date back to Kim's father, Kim Jong Il, are designed to keep personal biological material out of other countries' hands as it could reveal "any medical conditions," including "skin tags." Even items like cigarette butts or stray hairs are carefully disposed of. After Kim's 2019 meeting with President Trump in Hanoi, his team reportedly spent hours cleaning his hotel room, even removing the mattress.
The careful attention to hygiene and security appears to be standard operating procedure for Kim's regime, highlighting a persistent concern about surveillance and intelligence gathering—even among supposed friends. But there are signs that Putin operates the same way. During the Alaska summit with President Trump last month, his security guards were seen carrying a suitcase, with onlookers speculating that it was holding the Russian leader's feces in an effort to prevent foreign powers from obtaining information about his health, per NDTV. Some sources say this has been the standard throughout Putin's reign, per the Independent.