North Korea’s super-sized hotel is set to open — 23 years behind schedule
By Chico Harlan
February 9, 6:30 AM
Washington Post
"SEOUL — North Korea’s Ryugyong Hotel ranks among the world’s most remarkable — and mockable — buildings. It’s taller than New York’s Chrysler Building and wider at its base than an average city block. Constructed almost entirely of concrete, it looks like a rocket ship, casting a jagged shadow over Pyongyang’s gray vistas.
(Ian Timberlake/AFP/Getty Images) - Sometime this spring, according to the Yonhap news agency in Seoul, the Ryugyong Hotel will partially open — 23 years behind schedule.
But the Ryugyong has also never opened for business, which is why, for years, outsiders have viewed it as an emblem of North Korea’s broader failures. Work began in 1987 on a structure envisaged as a 105-story showcase of prosperity. It ended just four years later, when the money ran out. The building had reached its planned height but was left as a hulking pyramid with glassless windows. For years, a single crane remained perched at the top, a stranded reminder of grand plans gone bust.
“It was the hotel with the iconic crane,” said Simon Cockerell, an executive at Beijing-based Koryo Tours, which leads tourist trips to North Korea. “It dominated the skyline.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...y.html?hpid=z2
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Thanks for all the photos!
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