When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his recent trip to China, he did not just bring a diplomatic entourage; he also brought along something far more unusual, a private, high-security toilet.

While it might sound absurd at first, intelligence sources from South Korea and Japan say this is not just a bizarre luxury. The North Korean regime reportedly goes to extraordinary lengths to protect anything that could reveal clues about the leader’s health, including his bodily waste.

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Why is Kim Jong Un using a private toilet?

“The supreme leader’s physical well-being is directly tied to the regime’s stability,” a South Korean intelligence officer told Nikkei Asia. “There are dedicated protocols to ensure that no trace, not even a strand of hair or biological material, is left behind.”

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This obsession with secrecy was on full display during a recent meeting between Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to journalists who were present, Kim’s staff were seen methodically scrubbing every surface the North Korean leader had come into contact with, from the chair upholstery to the glass he drank from, before departing.

It is not just Kim Jong Un. World leaders from autocracies and democracies alike have adopted similar habits to protect sensitive biological information.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, for instance, is believed to travel with a specialised team tasked with retrieving and securely disposing of his waste while abroad.

According to Paris Match, this team ensures that no sample is left behind, as this could lead to analysing the president’s health or medical treatments.

Experts say the rationale is simple, a stool or urine sample could, in theory, expose a great deal about someone’s health, including signs of disease, medication use, or even long-term medical conditions.

International leaders who carried their own toilets

World leaders have gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure their bodily waste does not fall into the wrong hands. This practice, sometimes dubbed “excrement espionage,” has deep roots in the world of intelligence gathering and continues to play a role in modern geopolitics.

One of the earliest recorded instances dates back to 1949, during Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s visit to Moscow.

At the time, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin reportedly ordered the installation of special toilets to discreetly collect and analyze Mao’s waste, hoping to uncover details about his health and, by extension, the political stability of China.

Fast forward to 1999, when Syrian President Hafez al-Assad traveled to Amman for the funeral of Jordan’s King Hussein. Intelligence sources claim that Israeli and Jordanian operatives collaborated to secure samples of Assad’s waste.

Given his known health issues, including diabetes and cancer, the information obtained was considered highly valuable for regional intelligence agencies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has become one of the most closely guarded world leaders, and that extends to his biological matter.

During an international summit in Alaska with US President Donald Trump, Putin’s security team was reported to have taken an unusual precaution: a specially designed briefcase to store and transport his fecal waste back to Russia.

According to reports from The Express US, agents from Russia’s Federal Protection Service are tasked with retrieving and securing the president’s waste while abroad. The collected material is sealed in protective bags and carried in a designated suitcase to ensure nothing is left behind.

Human waste can reveal a treasure trove of biological data. From traces of medication and drug metabolites to indicators of serious illness, the contents of a toilet can potentially expose sensitive information about a leader’s health and medical treatment.

Western intelligence services have also been involved in this type of surveillance. The CIA is believed to have collected biological material from high-profile foreign leaders during state visits, including former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

And it is not just authoritarian regimes that take these precautions. In 2006, then US President George W. Bush reportedly travelled to Vienna with a portable, secure toilet to ensure his waste was never left behind.