North Korea used its annual turn at the United Nations on Monday to warn of ‘a harsh reality rampant with unprecedented mutual distrust and confrontation.’ The speech was unusually mild by Pyongyang’s standards and contained no direct threats.

Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong addressed the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 28. He said North Korea would endure and, in a multilateral world, ‘surely attain all that we plan to, relying entirely on our own efforts.’

‘Gone are the days when an individual member state unilaterally imposed its will on the rest of the world,’ Kim said, praising multilateralism and multipolarization as ‘an irresistible aspiration and trend of the times.’

North Korea remains at odds with South Korea, Japan and the United States, which are closely aligned on East Asian security. Kim insisted his country was ready to defend itself, crediting its ‘war deterrent’ for keeping the Korean Peninsula free of conflict.

The address was North Korea’s yearly chance to speak on the world stage. This year it chose restraint over the threats of the past.