North Korean security disinfected Kim’s chair at Putin summit

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s security detail spent several minutes disinfecting the chair that Kim sat on during a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Thursday.

Video footage published by the newspaper showed a North Korean security official in white gloves scrupulously wiping down Kim’s black chair and spraying around an unidentified substance.

The North Korean sprayed and wiped down the seat, the hands, the legs and even the area around the chair as a Kremlin bodyguard looked on in a slightly bemused way.

Another North Korean guard then gave some sort of order to the guard doing the disinfecting. The nature of the order was unclear.

“The chair turned out to be the subject of the greatest concern of the North Korean side,” wrote Kommersant’s Kremlin correspondent, Andrei Kolesnikov.

Apparently Kim’s security detail – of over 100 people – were unhappy with the first chair and another one – exactly the same – was produced by the Russian side, Kommersant said.

“Then a North Korean employee wiped the chair intended for Kim Jong Un for several minutes without stopping, wearing white gloves: judging by the smell he disinfected it,” said Kommersant, one of Russia’s leading newspapers.

“In the end, it was a matter of life and death for them, but not for their leader.”

At Wednesday’s summit talks in Russia’s Far East region, Putin and Kim discussed military matters, the war in Ukraine and possible Russian help for North Korea’s satellite programme.