North Korea wants to be seen as the perfect country, but as we all know for the most part it's an impoverished communist dictatorship. Every once in a while though the government will splurge on some kind of megaproject to proof that it can do the same or even better than other countries. The Ryugyong Hotel was one of these projects.
But why would a country that can barely feed its people build a giant hotel, especially when they barely get any foreign visitors?
The Ryugyong Hotel was a product of Cold War rivalry between North and South Korea. Just a year before construction started in 1987, South Korea announced that it had completed building what was then the tallest hotel in the world, the Westin Stamford in Singapore. Meanwhile, Seoul the capital of South Korea, was preparing to host the 1988 Summer Olympics.
At one point North Korea was actually ahead of the South in terms of economic development, although they were heavily dependent on China and the Soviet Union for this. With the south becoming a capitalist democracy, the North was afraid of falling behind even further.
The North responded to this by hosting and organizing the 1989 World Festival of Youth and Students, which was basically a socialist version of the Olympics. They hoped to be able to finish the massive hotel in time for the festival, and steal the South's record away.
But engineering problems got in the way, and it wasn't even nearly finished by the time the festival started. The government had already spent billions on the event, building a new stadium, upgrading roads, and expanding the airport. On top of that, the Soviet Union had started to disintegrate, which deprived it of vital aid and investment. The country was now on the brink of an economic crisis, and although the external structure was finished, all construction was put on hold in 1992.
The hotel is 330 meters tall, which makes it slightly taller than the Eiffel tower, and has 105 floors! Because the North doesn't have access to advanced building materials or technology, the entire building is made out of reinforced concrete.
The building was constructed with three wings, each sloped at a 75 degree angle, that converge into a cone that has 15 floors. The cone was supposed to house restaurants, shops, and a rotating observation deck.
The pyramid like shape isn't just for aesthetics, although the building was designed to look like a mountain, since it's made of concrete and not steel, the building needs to have a massive base to support all the weight, and it has to be lighter at the top.
For years, to avoid embarrassment, the North Korean government has photoshopped the building out of official pictures of Pyongyang.
But in 2008 after a 16 year break, construction finally resumes on the building by the Egyptian conglomerate Orascom. Orascom had previously been contracted to build North Korea's 3G network.
First the rusty crane at the top of the building that had sat there for almost two decades was removed. Then North Korean workers with the help of Egyptian engineers install glass and metal panels on the structure at a cost of $180 million. In 2011 the poject is finished, which gives it the modern and polished appearance that it has today.
The makeover fueled speculation that the hotel might actually open for business soon, and in 2012 the German company Kempinski Hotels announced that the Ryugyong would partially open under its management in 2013. But just a few months later, they pulled out and said that entering the market was "not currently possible".
It is unknown what the reason exactly was, but they could have had pressure from western governments not to do business with the North Korean government. Another theory is that Kempinski pulled out due to the rumors that the building was structurally unsound.
In 2014 a 23 story concrete apartment building collapsed in Pyongyang. According to North Korean state media, the cause was that the construction had not been done propery.
Take this story and combine it with the fact that the hotel had been exposed to the weather and sat there withtout maintenance for almost two decades, and it's understandable that people are concerned.
Interior photographs from 2012 revealed that the inside had been almost untouched since the initial construction.
After this the hotel again remains empty and unfinished for the next couple years. Then in 2018, the government installs LEDs all over the surface of the building, turning the hotel in one of the worlds biggest light shows, and also creating yet another propaganda tool. The building would from time to time display slogans and images from North Korea's history, but this is usually only done on holidays and major events, probably to save electricity.
Work was also done on the hotel's surroundings, which has also recently opened up. People can now walk up all the way to the entrance, but are not able to go inside. In June 2018 a sign was added to the building, displaying its name in Korean and English.
But the question remains, will the hotel ever open?
As we saw before, the last picture that we have of the interior is from 2012, so it's unknown if any work has been done on the inside. The hotel could open up in stages, so that some floors could host guests, while they finish the other parts of the hotel. The struggle of making it financially sustainable remains though, as it's hard to imagine how North Korea would ever fill the building.
According to some sources, the government does want to start using the building in the future. In the meantime Pyongyang has seen an increase in the number of high-rise apartment buildings, with the tallest building being just 60 meters shorter than the hotel. So maybe they'll turn the hotel in a residential building for the elite.
Hopefully we'll see the building open soon, I think it would be fascinating to see what they eventually make of it!
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