President Donald Trump praised Kim Jong Un repeatedly following their nuclear summit Tuesday, a sharp reversal from when he publicly eviscerated the North Korean regime for human rights abuses last year.

The U.S. president and North Korean dictator met in Singapore on Tuesday, signing a historic agreement committing to a process of “complete denuclearization.” The statement excluded some key details about what denuclearization would mean or how it would be accomplished.

Trump pulled back from criticizing Kim as he did during a speech before the United Nations last year. The communist dictatorship has been condemned worldwide for the political prisons, assassinations and starvation seen in the country. The president’s comments and face-to-face meeting with Kim have sparked criticism that he could legitimize or embolden North Korea’s regime.

Trump used terms such as “talented” to describe Kim following their meeting on Tuesday.

“I learned he’s a very talented man. I also learned that he loves his country very much,” the president said.

Pressed about North Korea’s brutal rule, including the killings of Kim’s uncle and half-brother, Trump told reporters that he never said Kim was “nice.” Trump also stressed that he believes he has “helped” the estimated 120,000 people in North Korean prison camps. Trump said there’s “not much [the president] can do right now” about the prisons but he hopes Kim will address it “at a certain point.”

Trump’s comments Tuesday were a far cry from his speech to the U.N. in September. During a speech in which he said, “Rocket Man” Kim “is on a suicide mission,” he slammed the regime’s practices.

“No one has shown more contempt for other nations and for the wellbeing of their own people than the depraved regime in North Korea,” Trump said at the time. “It is responsible for the starvation deaths of millions of North Koreans, and for the imprisonment, torture, killing and oppression of countless more.”

In September, he also called out North Korea for “deadly abuse” of Otto Warmbier. The American student died last year shortly after returning to the U.S. from extended detention in North Korea.

Trump said Tuesday that Warmbier “did not die in vain” and “had a lot to do with us being here today.”