Kim Jong-un’s paranoia was on full display after a meeting with Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of China’s World War II military parade.

Even surrounded by allies, like the Russian president, North Korea’s leader is going to extraordinary lengths to protect himself while travelling abroad.

Footage shared on a Russian Telegram channel showed staff ‘destroying’ all traces that the dictator had attended the bilateral talks in Beijing. 

They were seen taking away the glass he drank from and vigorously wiping down his seat and every part of furniture he had touched with wet wipes.

The most colourful explanation to the weird behaviour is Kim’s persecution complex.

Whatever the exact reason, the leader has long feared high-ranking traitors and defectors, and has faced multiple assassination plots – one allegedly organised by the CIA.

Less than a year ago, in October, the South Korean National Intelligence Service told parliament that Kim’s security detail had expanded its efforts to protect him, including by using communication-jamming devices and drone detection equipment.

The spy agency did not cite a specific threat against Kim – but noted that despite threats to his safety, he has been making more frequent public appearances.

In his own country, his appearances are normally carefully managed, with any foreigners present forced to go through hours-long security checks beforehand.

The exact security operation around Kim’s trip to Beijing remains veiled, but it is expected that he is flanked by security at all times.

Joined by Putin, he travelled from a formal reception to the negotiations in the same car, the Kremlin said in a post on social media.

After a bilateral meeting between Russian and North Korean delegations, the two leaders held a one-on-one meeting. 

Putin also invited Kim to visit Russia again, following on from the North Korean leader’s last visit to the country in 2023.

Speaking in front of journalists as the talks began, Putin praised the bravery and heroism of North Korean soldiers who fought alongside his own troops to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region.

According to South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent around 15,000 troops to Russia since last year.

It has also sent large quantities of military equipment, including ballistic missiles and artillery, to help fuel Putin’s three-year invasion of Ukraine.

In his opening remarks, Kim said that cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow has ‘significantly strengthened’ since the two countries signed a strategic partnership pact in June last year during a summit in the North Korean capital.

Although he did not specifically mention the war, Kim stressed that ‘if there is anything I can do for you and the people of Russia, if there is more that needs to be done, I will consider it as a fraternal duty, an obligation that we surely need to bear, and will be prepared to do everything possible to help.’

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Rehearsals for the event in Beijing showed the new weapon mounted on an eight-wheeled truck (Picture: X)

A new weapon dubbed ‘the most powerful laser air defence system in the world’ is expected to be unveiled in China tomorrow…

Big smiles, hearty laughs, warm hugs…

The atmosphere at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in China feels more like a school reunion, where old classmates compare how much weight they have put on.

Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi – who represent the top three largest powers not aligned with the West – are shown joking like friends as they greet each other at the event earlier today.

It starts with Russia’s president and India’s prime minister holding hands and walking into a meeting hall filled with other world leaders. 

They head straight for China’s president Xi Jinping, enthusiastically shake hands and form a close circle.

In his remarks to open the talks, Modi then describes the partnership with Russia as ‘special and privileged.’ 

And Putin them addresses Modi as a ‘dear friend’ and hails Russia’s ties with India as special, friendly and trusting.

As intended, this anti-Western coalition – dubbed the ‘axis of upheaval’ – appears united to offer an alternative world order, challenging the US.

Keir Giles, a leading analyst on European defence and Russia at Chatham House in London, told Metro that the relationships on display are ‘a visual reminder of the way alliances have formed in the global confrontation.’

He added: ‘The coalition that stands against the liberal democracies has a mutual understanding, which is far more developed and purposeful than that of the group of Western democracies, which are still floundering on how to defend themselves.

‘To some extent, it does represent a broad consensus about how the world should be run – and it is a very different consensus to the one that prevails in Europe and in other Western democracies.’

What Giles thought was ‘most disturbing’ is the way this close relationship on display between Russia and China was ‘mimicked’ by Donald Trump during the summit in Alaska earlier in August.

He explained: ‘Trump also welcomed Putin as though he was greeting an overlord rather than dealing with a pariah state that is vastly weaker that his own.

‘The Alaska Summit is a confirmation that the US’ place in the coalition of democracies is no longer assured.

‘The way in which the US has been so eager to pursue Russia’s desired policies with regards to Ukraine and elsewhere is not a surprise, but still seems to shock to Europe and other democracies around the world.’

The SCO, set up in 2001, is the successor to the Shanghai Five, a grouping of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, set up in 1996.

It now also includes India, Pakistan, Iran, Belarus and Uzbekistan. It is aimed at strengthening relations among member states and promoting cooperation in political affairs, economics, and trade.

Xi told the SCO leaders that the global international situation is becoming more ‘chaotic and intertwined’.

The Chinese leader also slammed the ‘bullying behaviour’ from certain countries – a veiled reference to the US.

He added: ‘The security and development tasks facing member states have become even more challenging.

‘With the world undergoing turbulence and transformation, we must continue to follow the Shanghai spirit…and better perform the functions of the organisation.’

Putin used his speech to defend his invasion of Ukraine, blaming the West for triggering the three-and-a-half year war.

He warned: ‘This crisis was not triggered by Russia’s attack on Ukraine, but was a result of a coup in Ukraine, which was supported and provoked by the West.

‘The second reason for the crisis is the West’s constant attempts to drag Ukraine into Nato.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Our verdict on the actor’s big risk of a role.

Our verdict on the actor’s big risk of a role.

The actor said he avoided simply impersonating the Russian leader.

He described the role as like ‘Everest to climb.’

Ira had recently arrived in the United States, seeking safety from the war and hoping for a new beginning.

Vladimir Putin has made the startling claim that the West is responsible for the conflict in Ukraine.

The Russian dictator said he was doing all he could to stop the war despite continuing to launch missile and drone strikes on civilians.

He also claimed Western people were friendly to him and Russia.

His comments came during a visit to secret closed nuclear city Sarov – the birthplace of the Soviet atomic bomb – on Friday.

Putin said: ‘Of course, there is propaganda working there [in the West], brainwashing people and claiming that we started the war.

The West and Kyiv were ‘forgetting that it was they [Ukraine] who started it in 2014 when they used tanks and aviation against the peaceful population of Donbas.

‘That is when the war began, and we are doing everything to stop it.’

It comes a week after Putin met with US president Donald Trump to trash out peace talks in Alaska.

Peace talks have stalled but it raised the hopes of Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky meeting face-to-face for the first time since 2019.

In another incredible claim, Putin himself stopped military commanders from taking out Zelensky last year, according to one of his closest allies.

Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko, who once described the Russian leader as his ‘elder brother’, says Putin forbade plans to strike the headquarters of the Ukrainian presidency in Bankova area of Kyiv.

It came after the Russian doomsday missile system Oreshnik was tested without live warheads in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in November 2024.

It sparked the plot to target Zelensky’s bunker and the heart of the government, according to Lukashenko, but Putin had other ideas.

He said: ‘After they struck with the Oreshnik, the Ukrainians realised: trouble’.

‘They can also hit Bankova. Insider information for you. Somone in Russia had such plans – (I will not name them).

‘Putin said: “Under no circumstances”.

‘They were ready to strike.

‘If they had fired the Oreshnik at the centres of decision-making, there would have been nothing left there’.

‘There are two choices: war or peace, and if there is no peace, then there is more war’

Switzerland has emerged as the likely contender to host the meeting between Zelensky and Putin (Picture: Getty)

Talks of a breakthrough in Russia’s war in Ukraine have rumbled before – but now the prospect of Vladimir Putin and…

The elephant in the room is a potential meeting between Vladimir Putin and Zelensky – is it even feasible?

‘Of course, as soon as I walk out the door, there’ll probably be a new war starting, and I’ll get that stopped too’

‘There are no words.’

Readers discuss Trump and Putin’s lack of peace proposals, the ‘evil empire’, nappy power and nuclear energy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders rushed to the White House three days after the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska.

It comes after the Alaska summit on Friday in which Putin and Trump failed to make a deal.

Donald Trump passed the Russian leader a letter from his wife at Friday’s summit.

Vladimir Putin’s twitching legs as he bade farewell to Donald Trump after their Alaska summit have reignited rumours over his health.

‘They were two powers of equal strength.’

Journalists asked Putin: ‘Mr Putin, will you agree to a ceasefire?’ and ‘Will you commit to not kill any more civilians?’

The presidents are set to meet over a ‘working breakfast’.

Russian state aircraft have been spotted heading to Alaska.

Ukraine didn’t even get an invite.

‘We’ll see if they get along.’