North Korea is holding its most important political gathering in a generation, where leader Kim Jong-un will cement his status.

Thousands of delegates are meeting for a choreographed show of support being seen as an unofficial coronation.

Mr Kim is expected to reassert his nuclear ambitions, with speculation he will soon conduct a fifth nuclear test.

The BBC’s Stephen Evans in Pyongyang says Kim Jong-un is inside the hall, with guards lined up outside the venue.

The capital was spruced up ahead of the event and citizens lay flowers in central squares as it got under way.

The streets are lined with National and Workers’ Party flags with banners that read “Great comrades Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il will always be with us” and “Defend the headquarters of the Korean revolution at the cost of the our lives”.

It is the seventh meeting of North Korea’s Worker’s Party and the first since 1980, and is being held inside the April 25 House of Culture, now covered in vast red and gold banners and massive images of the current leader’s father and grandfather.

BBC