Moment North Koreans ‘remove all traces of Kim Jong Un’s DNA’ from meeting room where he met Putin by wiping down furniture and removing items

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.’

It is not clear whether Kim ordered the forensic decontamination because of fears about Putin’s secret services or the Chinese, but the Pyongyang dictator is not the only world leader anxious about protecting his DNA. 

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.

South Korea believes Kim sent some 15,000 troops to support Russia. Estimates of the number of killed North Korean soldiers vary, ranging between 600 and 2,000. 

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.

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

Participants wave Chinese national flags during a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II

China’s Victory Day military parade serves as a powerful display of national pride and military power

This year’s parade carries heightened geopolitical weight with the attendance of 26 world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian

After the parade, Kim and Putin travelled in the same car to a state guesthouse for private bilateral discussions

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. 

‘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?’

A boy dressed as a soldier holds a toy gun as he waits to watch the military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Beijing

Bringing together 26 heads of state including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Xi’s gathering has been dubbed an ‘Axis of Upheaval’ by Western analysts

At a time when Trump has set his sights on a Nobel Peace Prize, any new concentration of military power in the East that includes Russia will ring alarm bells for the West

For Kim, the parade marks the largest multilateral diplomatic event he has ever attended, offering the reclusive young leader an opportunity to gain implicit support for his banned nuclear weapons

Two girls hold flags as they show the victory sign while waiting to watch military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Beijing

Bringing together 26 heads of state including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Xi’s gathering has been dubbed an ‘Axis of Upheaval’ by Western analysts, who commented on the anti-NATO stance of the countries.

At a time when Trump has set his sights on a Nobel Peace Prize, any new concentration of military power in the East that includes Russia will ring alarm bells for the West. 

‘Trilateral military exercises between Russia, China and North Korea seem nearly inevitable,’ wrote Youngjun Kim, an analyst at the U.S.-based National Bureau of Asian Research, in March, citing how the conflict in Ukraine had pushed Moscow and Pyongyang closer.

‘Until a few years ago, China and Russia were important partners in imposing international sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests… (they) are now potential military partners of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea during a crisis on the Korean peninsula,’ he added, using the diplomatically isolated country’s official name.

For Kim, the parade marks the largest multilateral diplomatic event he has ever attended, offering the reclusive young leader an opportunity to gain implicit support for his banned nuclear weapons, and expand his diplomatic circle.

Before crossing to China early on Tuesday, Kim visited a missile laboratory.

The visit was geared towards ‘showing off (North Korea’s) status as a nuclear power’ just before ‘standing alongside Xi and Putin, which is intended to suggest support for North Korea as a nuclear state,’ said Hong Min, North Korea analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.