Aides Erase DNA Evidence After North Korea Leader’s Meeting With Putin

3rd September 2025 at 5:31 PM

2 minutes read

: A video has surfaced online showing North Korean staff frantically scrubbing and sanitising every object Kim Jong Un touched during his meeting with Vladimir Putin in China.

Mumbai : A video has surfaced online showing North Korean staff frantically scrubbing and sanitising every object Kim Jong Un touched during his meeting with Vladimir Putin in China. The unusual spectacle unfolded on Wednesday, shortly after the North Korean and Russian leaders held talks following a grand military parade in Beijing.

One staffer carefully polished the backrest of the chair Kim had occupied, while another carried away his drinking glass on a tray with the precision of a forensic investigator. No surface was left untouched – the wooden arms of the chair, the upholstery, and even the side table were vigorously wiped down until there was no trace of the North Korean leader’s presence.

They took away the glass from which he drank, wiped the upholstery of the chair and those parts of the furniture that the Korean leader touched. According to Yunashev, the official meeting ended on a positive note, with both Kim and Putin leaving “very satisfied” before heading off to enjoy tea together in a more relaxed setting.

Some speculate it may have been a precaution against Russia’s powerful security services, while others suggest unease about China’s surveillance reach. But Kim is far from the only head of state fiercely protective of his biological footprint. Putin himself is said to go to extraordinary lengths to guard against DNA theft. Reports claim his bodyguards collect his urine and faecal matter in sealed bags whenever he travels abroad, which are then spirited back to Moscow in special suitcases.

A similar measure was reportedly in play during Putin’s high-stakes meeting with Donald Trump in Alaska. Russian security staff were said to have carried the President’s excrement back to Moscow in suitcases, underlining the Kremlin’s obsession with shielding even the most intimate details of the leader’s wellbeing. Putin thanked Pyongyang for sending troops to Ukraine, though reports suggest some 2,000 of the 13,000 North Korean soldiers dispatched to support Russia’s war effort have already been killed.

The visit marked Kim’s first known trip to China since the pandemic and his first opportunity to meet both Putin and Xi together, as well as mingle with over two dozen other world leaders who had gathered for the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War Two.