North Korea’s state-run media on Friday refrained from anti-U.S. rhetoric on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the armistice agreement, with leader Kim Jong Un instead using the date to praise Beijing and Pyongyang’s “durable friendly relations unprecedented in history.”

Ruling party organ the Rodong Sinmun, in particular, notably released no articles critical of the U.S. in Friday’s eight-page special edition.

A national commemoration event marking the “65th anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War,” too, appears to have been scaled down compared to previous years.

The fifth National Conference of War Veterans, the first