North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was accompanied in Beijing by a carefully trained staff, captured in images wiping the objects used by him during the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The gesture shows the care of the Pyongyang regime to avoid biological traces that could provide information about the leader’s health, EFE reports.
"After the negotiations, the staff accompanying the North Korean leader carefully removed all traces of Kim's presence," Russian journalist Aleksandr Yunashev reported on Telegram. In the footage published by him, an assistant takes the glass used by Kim, while another team member cleans the backrest and arms of the chair, as well as the table where the glass had been placed.
Armored train and personal toilet to prevent information leaks
The precautions were not limited to the meeting with Putin. According to the Japanese newspaper Nikkei, the armored train "Taeyangho," with which Kim traveled to China, has a specially designed bathroom to prevent the recovery of any biological residues. The information comes from sources in South Korean and Japanese intelligence services.
"The health condition of the supreme leader has a major impact on the North Korean regime. North Korea makes a special effort to isolate everything related to this, such as hair and excrement," a South Korean intelligence official told Nikkei.
An old practice: mobile toilet and collecting cigarette butts
Such measures are not new for Pyongyang. During foreign trips, Kim's delegation cleans hotel rooms and utensils used by the leader, and he never uses writing tools other than those prepared by his team.
In 2018, Kim brought his own toilet to the inter-Korean summit and the one in Singapore with Donald Trump. A year later, on the way to Hanoi, he was filmed smoking next to his train, while his sister, Kim Yo Jong, collected cigarette butts to avoid leaving DNA evidence, according to the Japanese TV station TBS.