It has been described as the “Hotel of Doom” for its menacing, Neo-futurist architectural style.
At 1,080 feet, it towers above the Pyongyang skyline with no other building coming close to its soaring height.
In any other capital city it would be a bustling hub of activity, guests coming in and out, workers carrying heavy suitcases up and down its vast hallways.
Yet, since opening its doors in 2017, North Korea’s Ryugyong Hotel hasn’t seen a single guest.
That is because despite being ‘open’ the hotel is unfinished because of a combination of setbacks, complications, and a lack of funds.
Construction on the skyscraper began all the way back in 1987, in what was reportedly a Cold War response to the completion of the then world’s tallest hotel, the Westin Stamford Hotel in Singapore.
South Korean company SsangYong Group had built it, and historical analysis suggests that the North Korean leadership believed it would act as a channel for Western investors to step into the market in the region.
The Ryugyong Hotel Investment and Management was established and sought investment, a grand vision of a place of stay that would include casinos, restaurants, nightclubs and loungers drawn up.
It went up in rapid succession, and by 1992, the year of Kim Il-sung’s 80th birthday, the building had reached its full architectural height.
However, due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the loss of its main trading partner, and a new era of global geopolitics, work was immediately halted.
For ten years the Ryugyong Hotel sat vacant without windows, fixtures, or fittings. It appeared more like a shell of something that existed before than a brand-new building.
Even the crane that had helped build it was abandoned, standing lonely and rusted alongside the skyscraper.
By 2008, global interest remained fixed on the hotel as a metaphor for a stagnant North Korean state. One official from the country even told the Los Angeles Times that it was not completed “because [North Korea] ran out of money”.
That year, however, an Egyptian contractor, the Orascom group, took over the project and revived construction.
They began cladding the hotel’s surface with glass panels, and estimates suggest that it would cost an additional £1.6billion on top of the £600 million already spent to complete the building.
It may seem a small figure for a country but accounts for five percent of North Korea’s entire GDP of £31billion, according to the most recent data on CIA’s World Factbook.
While incomplete, other uses have been found for the building.
Hundreds of fireworks were fired from its edges to mark May Day celebrations in 2009, in what was a beautifully choreographed installation.
LED light shows are also regularly held, where images and digitally rendered displays flash across the entirety of the building’s surface, especially on days of national significance and celebrations like New Year.
