‘il’ feted Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea set to finally open

The fall of the Soviet Union; the internet; Brit Pop; iPods – these are just some of the things to have occurred since construction began on the Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea.

Nicknamed the ‘Hotel of Doom’, the Ryugyong in Pyongyang was originally scheduled to be completed in time for the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students in 1989.

Following the Soviet Union’s aforementioned dissolution, North Korea plunged into economic crisis and work on the hotel halted.

Standing at 330 metres, the building is the 47th biggest in the world and has the fifth greatest number of floors, 105.

Its half-finished presence, standing high and above anything else in the secretive state’s capital city, has, analysts say, long been an embarrassment for the North Korean leadership.

Despite a European Union Chamber of Commerce delegation concluding that the building was irreparable, German hotel chain Kempinski has announced it will manage the hotel upon its completion – thanks to the reconstruction efforts of Egyptian company Orascom Telecom.

“It will become a multipurpose complex, with the three lowest floors used for the lobby, restaurants and a shopping centre, and the rest of the upper floors mostly used for offices,” said Kempinski chief executive Reto Wittwer.