Sun Day, which honors Kim II Sung, is the country’s largest annual public holiday. The celebrations are usually bigger on every fifth and tenth anniversary. The state-run news website Uriminzokkiri used its cover to praise the nation’s Supreme Leader. Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 1:00 North Korea celebrates the 110th birthday of its late founder with fireworks, dancing and calls for greater loyalty to Kim Jong Un’s grandson. “Let us work harder with dedication to our esteemed comrade Kim Jong Un and on this path to finally realize the dreams of our great president (Kim Il Sung) to build a strong socialist state,” he said. The message follows months of weapons tests by North Korea, which include the first launch of a full-range intercontinental ballistic missile since 2017. Experts believe the nation is trying to expand its arsenal and increase pressure on the United States as nuclear diplomacy stops. The day’s events included an evening gala in Pyongyang’s main square, with thousands of people singing and dancing. The women wore colorful traditional clothes while the men wore white western type shirts. Image: Citizens pay tribute to the statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at the Mansudae Art Studio. Photo: AP The dancers surrounded a group of performers holding tall yellow flowers to form a hammer, brush and scythe – the symbol of the Korean Workers’ Party. Concerts, art exhibitions and ideological seminars have been held in the past, along with a downtown festival of light, dancing fountains and decorated boats on the Taedong River, the state-run KCNA news agency reported. The festival “artistically depicted” the homeland of Kim Il Sung and “the sacred mountain of the revolution, Mount Paektu”. Image: The country is ruled by the Kim family. Photo: AP Residents could take pictures in front of arches illuminated with phrases such as “Pyongyang is the best” and “We are the happiest in the world”. They worshiped and placed bouquets of flowers near the bronze statues of Kim Il Sung and that of the late Kim Jong Il. Some dance groups from abroad from Russia, Romania, Austria and Laos appeared on video, the KCNA reported, but no foreign visitors were reported due to COVID rules, which largely prohibit cross-border travel. North Korea’s economy has suffered from border closures and international sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs, and aid services have warned of possible humanitarian crises. Kim Jong Un, whose family has ruled under a strong personality cult since the nation’s founding in 1948, donated new apartments to some of the elite loyalists earlier this week, including the country’s most famous television presenter.
