Seoul: After Kim Jong-un met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing, North Korean staffers carefully wiped off 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 Kim and Putin, footage showed the reclusive state’s extraordinary measures to conceal clues about Kim’s health.
In a post on Telegram, Kremlin reporter Alexander Yunashev shared video of Kim’s two staff members meticulously cleaning the room in the Chinese capital where Kim and Putin met for more than two hours.
The chair’s backrest and armrests were scrubbed and a coffee table next to Kim’s chair was also cleaned. Kim’s 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, referring to North Korea.
After talks in the room, Kim and Putin left for a tea meeting and bid a warm farewell to each other.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and Russian President Vladimir Putin talk inside a vehicle in Beijing.Credit: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP
As during previous foreign trips, Kim packed his own toilet on a signature green train that took him to Beijing to hide health clues, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported, citing South Korean and Japanese intelligence agencies.
Such measures were standard protocol since the era of Kim’s predecessor, his father Kim Jong-il, said Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert with the US-based Stimson Centre.
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