costs $ 2.5 billion, has 3,000 rooms and has never had a guest

This hotel can add multiple registrations. It is one of the 50 tallest buildings in the world, one of the ten hotels with the most floors in the world (105) and He hasn’t had a client for 34 years.

The Ryugyong Hotel was to be the jewel in the North Korean crown, and it has become a curse. Construction began in 1987, when the leader of the country was Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of the current big boss, Kim Jong-Un.

The idea was that it would open in 1989 and could be shown to the world as an architectural diamond. But the economic problems started and the great economic crisis of 1991 as well as the fall of the USSR caused the stop of the construction of the building.

Three million people died of hunger

Then we thought it would be December 30, 2017, when Kim Jong-Un would have been in office for eight years. Then it was thought to happen on January 8, 2021 when the leader turned 36. Now we think it never will be.

The Ryugyong hotel (means the city of willows), was an obsession for North Korean rulers. But obsessions need money. And with the whole structure, what was missing was to finish it.

How to explain to the 25 million North Koreans who had nothing to eat in the 1990s that it was necessary to put an end to this gigantic monster? Between 1990 and 2000, some three million North Koreans have died of starvation.

This was how it remained until 2008, when the gigantic abandoned building welcomed new workers. For the North Korean leaders, it was a shame not to be able to finalize their most publicized structure.

An Egyptian telecommunications company, Orascom, which has good connections and offices in North Korea, decided to finish the construction. In addition to 3,000 rooms, 8 revolving restaurants, and a few casinos and nightclubs, the Egyptians took charge of other revolutionary innovations.

Orascom put in $ 400 million to complete the hotel, in return for setting up the country’s mobile infrastructure. They spent $ 180 million to cover the entire hotel with blue mirrored glass. The Ryugyong Hotel looked like a real building. Only outside. Inside it was still empty. A shell without content.

“The worst building in the history of mankind”

The day before North Korea’s launch of its second ballistic missile, hundreds of soldiers brought building materials into the hotel and hung a huge sign reading: “The Mighty Rocket Nation”.

The magazine Squire declared to the hotel as “The worst building in the history of mankind”. And above all closed. But in 2018, leader King Jong-un launched a propaganda campaign to announce the opening of the hotel, despite the building having no electricity service.

Kim decided to adorn it with more 100,000 luces led which for several hours each night broadcast propaganda and the 40-meter North Korean flag in the upper cone.

There is the Ryugyong Hotel. Imposing and empty. Built in revenge to be taller than South Korean Westin Stamford. They did it. But never, in 34 years, has he received a tourist. And you may never receive it.

GML