[Roadcruiser1]

Originally Posted by Roadcruiser1

Most recent pictures from Flickr Members Kirvis, and Poliphile. All of them were taken on April 17 & April 24, 2011. Note the recently installed telecommunication rings.

I really don't get why you guys are criticizing this building as North Korea isn't responsible for the completion of this building in the first place. Orascom placed a contract with the North Korean Government to complete the building if they want to use it as a telecommunications mast. As I will once again quote from BBC.

Excerpt from "Will The Hotel of Doom ever be finished?"

A Great Symbol

The company charged with finishing the Ryugyong is Orascom Telecom, part of an Egyptian conglomerate that took on the rebuilding work - "in partnership with a local firm" - as part of a $400m deal to build and run a 3G mobile phone network in North Korea.

Dozens of Egyptian engineers and some 2,000 local workers are working on the Ryugyong project, which Orascom's chief operating officer Khaled Bichara tells the BBC is "progressing well", despite reported problems with suspect concrete and misaligned lift shafts.

"There have been no issues that have caused us too much trouble," Mr Bichara says. "Most of the work at the moment is coverage of different areas of the building. The first job is to finish the outside - you can't work on the insides until the outside is covered.

"You can see that we have already completed the top of the building where the revolving restaurant will be. After 2010, that's when it will be fully safe to start building from the inside."

How the building will be divided up is not yet finalised the company says, but it will be a mixture of hotel accommodation, apartments and business facilities. Antennae and equipment for Orascom's mobile network will nestle at the very top.

Mr Bichara denies reports that the company's exclusive access to North Korea's fledgling telecoms market is directly linked to the completion of the hotel.

But he says the job is a way of planting a rather tall flag in the ground. "We haven't been given a deadline, we are not tied into doing it by a certain time," he said.

"But when you work in a market like this, where we cannot sponsor things, a project of this kind is good to do - it's word of mouth advertising for us, it builds good rapport with the people - on its own it's a great symbol, one which cements our investment."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8306697.stm