North Korea marked the anniversary of the end of the Korean War with a parade of goose-stepping soldiers and a patriotic concert on Saturday, but without a grand display of its latest nuclear weaponry like last year.

Representatives from China — Pyongyang’s main ally during the conflict — notably appeared to be absent from the celebrations despite Kim Jong Un hailing the two countries’ friendship a day earlier.

The North Korean leader led the festivities at a “commemorative march” in Pyongyang celebrating the DPRK’s “great victory in the Fatherland Liberation War” in 1953, the state-owned Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)