N. Korea softens rhetoric on U.S. troops

For the first time North Korea called the U.S. military stationed in South Korea "American troops" instead of " American imperialist forces," departing from its long-standing practice.

Broadcasting a story about South Korean soldiers who defected to the North to find a new life there as "righteous dissidents," the North's Pyongyang Broadcasting on Monday referred to "a certain youth named Kim who once served as a private with the 2nd squad, 2nd platoon, 1st company in the 1st Infantry Battalion of the 2nd U.S. Army Division."

In a similar broadcast aired June 21 last year Radio Pyongyang had reported that "the certain youth Kim" belonged to "23rd Infantry Battalion of the 2nd American imperialist division."