This is the moment North Korean staff wiped down all the furniture that Kim Jong Un had touched and whisked away his glass in what looks like an attempt to remove all traces of his DNA after his meeting with Vladimir Putin.
The North Korean and Russian leaders met on Wednesday following a massive military parade in Beijing where Chinese President Xi Jinping showed off his nation’s rising diplomatic standing in the world.
In the video posted on Telegram, two staff members can be seen anxiously polishing the backrest of the chair where Kim sat and taking away his drinking glass on a tray.
One man makes sure to wipe down the wooden arms of the seat and even the table next to it.
‘After the negotiations, the staff accompanying the head of the DPRK carefully destroyed all traces of Kim’s presence,’ Russian journalist Alexander Yunashev reported on his Telegram channel Yunashev Live.
‘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.
‘The official part of the meeting ended, Putin and Kim left the office very satisfied and went to drink tea in a more relaxed atmosphere.’
Kim is not the only world leader anxious about protecting his DNA.
The North Korean and Russian leaders met on Wednesday following a massive military parade in Beijing where Chinese President Xi Jinping showed off his nation’s rising diplomatic standing in the world
n the video posted on Telegram, two staff members can be seen anxiously polishing the chair where Kim sat and taking away his drinking glass on a tray
One man makes sure to wipe down the wooden arms of the chair and even the table next to it
The Russian leader’s bodyguards reportedly collect his urine and fecal matter in sealed bags when he is abroad and deliver them in special suitcases to Moscow.
Putin’s Federal Protection Service (FPS) has apparently been doing this ritual since 2017 to prevent hostile leaders from ascertaining intelligence about his health based on his excrement.
At their talks, the North Korean leader pledged his full support to Putin, promising to do ‘everything I can to assist’ Moscow as the Russian president thanked Pyongyang for sending troops to fight against Ukraine.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of celebrations in Beijing to mark the anniversary of Japan‘s formal surrender in World War Two.
Hours earlier, the pair flanked the Chinese President at a massive military parade for the first such gathering of the three countries’ leaders since the early days of the Cold War.
After the parade, Kim and Putin travelled in the same car to a state guesthouse for private bilateral discussions.
‘If there is anything I can or must do for you and the Russian people, I consider it my duty as a fraternal obligation,’ Kim told Putin.
Putin addressed Kim as ‘Dear Chairman of State Affairs’ in Russian and extended his warmest greetings. The two countries are bound by a 2024 mutual defence treaty and both face heavy international sanctions – Russia for its war in and North Korea for its nuclear weapons programme.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend a meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse
Russian President Vladimir Putin (back) bids farewell to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un following their meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as he leaves after a meeting in Beijing, China September 3, 2025
‘Recently, relations between our countries have assumed a special, trusting and friendly character, and an allied character,’ Putin said, and praised North Korean special forces that were deployed to help Russian troops. ‘Your soldiers fought courageously and heroically.’
North Korean troops helped Moscow earlier this year to eject Ukrainian forces from Russia’s western region of Kursk.
‘I would like to note that we will never forget the sacrifices that your armed forces and the families of your servicemen have suffered,’ Putin said.
The Beijing visit, Kim’s first known trip to China since the pandemic, offered the reclusive North Korean leader his first-ever chance to meet Putin and Xi together, as well as mingle with the more than two dozen other national leaders who attended the events.
According to Pul Pervogo, a social media account that reports widely on Alexander Lukashenko’s activities, Kim spoke to the Belarusian president before the parade and invited him to visit Pyongyang.
Park Won-gon, a North Korea expert at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, called the visit a major propaganda win for Kim.
‘Just standing and walking side by side with Xi Jinping and Putin. How could there be any better way for him to show his status to the world and to his people?’
