Paranoia is often said to be a defining characteristic of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who traveled to Singapore this weekend on one of three airplanes — the other two being decoys to throw off any adversaries. Perhaps most illustratively, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo reports that Kim traveled to Singapore with a personal, portable toilet in order to deprive "determined sewer divers" from "insights into the supreme leader's stools."
But despite that sounding, well, totally nuts, Kim might actually be making a wise decision by keeping his excrement out of Singapore's sewers. Poop-divining is not unheard of, the New York Post observes: During the Cold War, the CIA allegedly obtained stool samples from Soviet leaders Mikhail Gorbachev and Nikita Khrushchev in order to gain insight into their health, and Josef Stalin also allegedly decided against signing an agreement with China's Mao Zedong in 1949 after collecting a sample of Mao's feces and using it to analyze his psychological profile.
Kim has long been rumored to be in less-than-perfect health, with the Post speculating he could suffer from "gout, diabetes, high blood pressure, sexually transmitted diseases, and psychological issues." Perhaps it is indeed better to be safe — whatever the disgusting costs — than sorry.
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