North Korean leader Kim Jong Un congratulated his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on securing a third term in power at the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) latest congress, in what one expert described as a bid to shore up goodwill ahead of a possible seventh nuclear test.

Monday’s edition of the Rodong Sinmun carried a letter Kim reportedly sent to Xi at the end of the CCP’s 20th Party Congress on Sunday and devoted a full page to a report characterizing the carefully choreographed event as a success.