Just hours after North Korea announced Kim Jong Un’s rise to general secretary of the country’s ruling party, Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly sent a congratulatory message to the DPRK leader.

China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday that Xi offered his “warm congratulations” and said that “China and the DPRK are friendly socialist neighbors linked by mountains and rivers.” Xi also reportedly emphasized that the Chinese government has an “unswerving” policy to “preserve, consolidate and develop China-DPRK relations” in what was possibly his first direct communication with Kim in 2021.

Earlier in the day, North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun