A day after the Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed it had “no idea” if North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un was in the country, the state propaganda arms of both countries confirmed that Kim and his wife met with China’s communist leader, Xi Jinping.

Both Xinhua, one of China’s state news services, and Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted the leaders as heaping lavish praise on each other during their encounter, the first time that Kim Jong-un is known to have left North Korea since becoming the nation’s tyrant in 2011.

The two reportedly discussed the greatness of the bilateral relationship and vowed to deeply enrich it following several major diplomatic developments for North Korea this year. Kim has publicly agreed to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and American President Donald Trump this spring, according to South Korean officials, but had said nothing about China, triggering dramatic proclamations in Chinese media that Beijing had not been “marginalized” by improved relations with the other two states.

The surprise visit appears, in part, a way to placate Xi’s demands for attention from Pyongyang. China is North Korea’s largest trading partner, responsible for more than 90 percent of North Korea’s international trade in 2016. Since then, China has signed onto several United Nations sanctions against the regime, urging Kim to abandon his illegal nuclear weapons program.

According to Xinhua, “Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan held a welcoming banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju and watched an art performance together.”

“We speak highly of this visit,” Xi reportedly told his North Korean counterpart, adding:

Both Comrade Chairman and I have personally experienced and witnessed the development of China-DPRK relationship. … This is a strategic choice and the only right choice both sides have made based on history and reality, the international and regional structure and the general situation of China-DPRK ties.

“This should not and will not change because of any single event at a particular time,” Xi warned.

Xi emphasized the importance of the two nations’ “common ideals and beliefs as well as profound revolutionary friendship,” according to Xinhua, and applauded Kim Jong-un for “taking a series of active measures and scoring achievements in developing economy and improving people’s wellbeing in recent years.”

North Korea is one of the world’s most impoverished countries. According to defectors who have escaped the regime, many North Koreans are forced to eat grass, boil rats, and resort to cannibalism to survive.