North Korea celebrated the 110th birthday of its late founder with fireworks, dancing and calls for greater loyalty to his grandson Kim Jong Un.

The Day of the Sun, which honours Kim II Sung, is the country’s biggest annual public holiday.

The celebrations are typically bigger on every fifth and tenth anniversary.

State-run news website Uriminzokkiri used its coverage to laud the nation’s Supreme Leader.

“Let’s work harder in devotion to our respected comrade Kim Jong Un and on that path ultimately realise the dreams of our great president (Kim Il Sung) to build a powerful socialist state,” it said.

The message follows months of weapons tests by North Korea, which have included its first full-range intercontinental ballistic missile launch since 2017.

Experts believe the nation is trying to expand its arsenal and increase pressure on the US as nuclear diplomacy stalls.

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The day’s events included an evening gala in Pyongyang’s main square, with thousands of people singing and dancing.

The women wore colourful traditional clothing while the men wore Western-style white shirts.

The dancers surrounded a group of performers who held up yellow flowers to form a hammer, brush and sickle – the symbol of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

Earlier concerts, art exhibitions and ideological seminars were held, along with a light festival in the city centre, complete with dancing fountains and decorated boats on the Taedong River, state news agency KCNA said.

The festival “artistically depicted” Kim Il Sung’s native home and “the sacred mountain of revolution, Mt Paektu”.

Residents could take pictures in front of arches lit with phrases like “Pyongyang Is Best” and “We Are the Happiest in the World.”

They bowed and laid bouquets of flowers near the bronze statues of Kim Il Sung and that late Kim Jong Il.

Some overseas dance groups from Russia, Romania, Austria, and Laos performed via video, KCNA said, but there were no foreign visitors reported due to COVID rules that largely ban cross-border travel.

North Korea’s economy has suffered due to the border closures and international sanctions over its nuclear and missile programmes, and there have been warnings of potential humanitarian crises from aid agencies.

Kim Jong Un, whose family has ruled under a strong personality cult since the nation’s founding in 1948, gifted new apartments to some of his loyal elites earlier this week, including the country’s most famous TV presenter.

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