Explicit anti-U.S. messages are absent in the markedly softer North Korean coverage of the 68th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, a review of the Monday edition of state outlet Rodong Sinmun reveals.

Compared to last year’s coverage commemorating the “military invasion” carried out by the “American imperialists and their south Korean puppets,” today’s Rodong articles do not include mentions of specific enemies of the Korean War.

Anniversaries of the war, which began on June 25, 1950, are often accompanied in North Korea by anti-American media coverage, rallies in Pyongyang, and other