Hope for Pyongyang’s ‘Hotel of Doom’?

Travel Blog  •  Joanna Kakissis  •  07.18.08 | 1:27 PM ET

imagePhoto via Wikipedia Commons.

The pyramid-shaped, 105-story Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea, has been languishing—unfinished—for 16 years. But now Egyptian developers have begun refurbishing what was once dubbed “the worst building in the history of mankind,” Reuters reports. It’s estimated to cost $2 billion—about 10 percent of North Korea’s annual economic output—to finish the skyline-dominating eyesore.

Tags: Hotels, Asia, North Korea, News and Briefs

Joanna Kakissis's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, among other publications. A contributor to the World Hum blog, she's currently a Ted Scripps fellow in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder.


1 Comment for Hope for Pyongyang’s ‘Hotel of Doom’?

Sydney hotels 11.14.08 | 8:07 AM ET

I wish construction to be restarted.This pyramid-shaped, 105-story Ryugyong Hotel,“the worst building in the history of mankind,” after completing the construction it should be called “the most beautiful hotel in the world”.

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