North Korea used its annual UN platform on Monday to warn of a world full of unprecedented mutual distrust and confrontation.

Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong addressed the 81st UN General Assembly in New York. By Pyongyang’s standards, the speech was relatively mild and contained no direct threats.

Kim said North Korea would endure and surely attain all that we plan to, relying entirely on our own efforts. He praised multilateralism and said the days of any single state dominating world politics were gone.

He insisted North Korea could act alone if necessary and said the country was prepared to defend itself against any external threat. He credited the country’s war deterrent for keeping the Korean Peninsula free of physical conflict.

North Korea is frequently at odds with South Korea, Japan and the United States, which are closely aligned on East Asian security.

Why it matters: the toned-down rhetoric comes as the world watches Pyongyang’s next moves, with diplomats parsing every signal for shifts in the isolated state’s posture.