Ryugyong Hotel

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Template:Koreanname north Template:CoorHeader Image:Pyongyang-May-2005.JPG The Ryugyong Hotel (or Ryu-Gyong Hotel) is a towering, empty concrete shell intended for use as a hotel in Sojang-dong, in the Potong-gang District of Pyongyang, North Korea. The hotel's name comes from one of the historic names for Pyongyang: Ryugyong, or "capital of willows". Its 105 stories rise some 330 m (1,083 ft), and it boasts some 360,000 m² (3.9 million ft²) of floor space, making it the most prominent feature of the city's skyline and by far the largest structure in that country. If the building were ever completed it would be the world's tallest hotel, and the seventh largest building in the world.<ref name="records">Template:Cite web</ref> Today, however, it remains unfinished and uninhabited.

Construction on the pyramid-shaped hotel began in 1987. Its 105-story planned height was reportedly a Cold War response to a South Korean company's completion of the Stamford Hotel in Singapore the previous year. North Korean leadership envisioned the project as a channel for Western investors to step into the marketplace. A firm, the Ryugyong Hotel Investment and Management Co., was established to attract a hoped for 230 million dollars in foreign investment. A representative for the North Korean government promised relaxed oversight, saying, "The foreign investors can even operate casinos, nightclubs or Japanese lounges if they want to."<ref name="oversight">Template:Cite journal</ref> It was added to maps and North Korean postage stamps before it was half-finished.

The Ryugyong's 3,000 rooms and 7 revolving restaurants were to open in June 1989 for the World Festival of Youth and Students, but problems with building methods and materials delayed it. Japanese newspapers estimated the cost of construction was $750 million<ref name="cost">Template:Cite journal</ref>—2% of North Korea's GDP—and it is generally assumed construction came to a halt in 1992 due to lack of funding, acute electricity shortages, and the prevailing famine. It still has a crane on the top.

The basic structure is complete, but it has never been certified as safe for occupancy. As a result, no windows, fixtures or fittings have been installed. According to Emporis,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the concrete used in building the Ryugyong Hotel is of unsuitable quality and therefore unsafe. The building is sagging so badly that it will never open as presently constructed. The North Korean government is trying to invite a foreign investment of $300 million to build a new structure for the hotel. In the meantime, it has removed the Ryugyong from maps and stamps and built a newer five-star hotel of more conventional design on the Taedong River.

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