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Inside the Koryo Hotel, Staffers Were Weeping for Kim Jong-Il

We're not quite sure but those might be Christmas trees....

When we think of North Korean hotels, we really only think of one--The Hotel of Doom which hasn't even opened, although it's been under construction for over 20 years. Yet there is actually another fully functional hotel in Pyongyang, The Koryo Hotel and judging from its Wikipedia entry it might be the most fascinating hotel yet.

We learned a little bit about the Koryo Hotel back in 2006 from TripAdvisor but the second-largest operating hotel in North Korea still amazes us. For instance, the hotel boasts 500 rooms but according to Wikipedia only about 50 rooms are ever occupied at one time, usually by international arms dealers. The hotel does achieve full occupancy in April around the time of Kim Il-Sung's birthday.

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Hotel of Doom / Fugly Hotels / Hotel Openings / Hotel News / North Korea Hotels / Ryugyong Hotel / → All Tags

One Hotel We Do Not Want to Open

As we begin to go through the list of hotels that were to open in 2011, here's one hotel that we do not want to open---the Hotel of Doom aka aka The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea.

The Telegraph UK reports that thanks to investments made by an Egyptian construction group, the hotel is now readying for an April 2012 opening after having stopped work on the tower in 1993. Opening day will actually fall on April 15, what would have been the 100th birthday of nation's founder Kim Il-sung.

So what will be inside the world's fugliest hotel?

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The Hotel of Doom Gets Some New Glass; Still Looks Pretty Scary

We can hardly believe it but after 16 years of neglect, the Doom Hotel in North Korea, aka Ryugyong Hotel, has finally been updated with some new glass windows at its peak.

Some background on this scary-looking hotel: The building was started in 1987 and planned to have 3,000 rooms inside its 105 storeys. But ultimately, the construction tab became to much for North Korea to handle and so it was left mostly abandoned for 20 years. It's never even hosted any hotel guests. But there are some improvements now being made. Reuters reports:

The peak of the 3,000-room hotel, in a country that permits few foreigners to visit, is encircled in new rings of shiny steel. Mirrored glass has yet to be affixed to the other sides of the muddish-grey concrete structure, foreigner visitors said.

The Egyptian firm, Orascom, is responsible for the face-lift but there is still no hope for this to be an actual hotel with real guests inside. Aside from the tourist restrictions, no one wants to give this building money anymore. They just want to spiff it up a little as part of North Korea's plan to become a "great and prosperous nation" by 2012. Hmmm....

[Photo: Reuters]

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North Korea's Ryugyong Hotel Gets a New Lease On its "Doomed" Life

Quite possibly the worst hotel in the world is the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea. This is not because the hotel is infested with bed bugs, or has crappy service, pay-for-WiFi or outrageous valet parking charges.

Nope, it's the worst hotel in the world because it has been abandoned for over 16 years with construction on the 105-storey pyramid-shaped hotel halted in 1992. It's never even hosted hotel guests. Oh yeah, and it's in North Korea.

Indeed, it's been dubbed "The Hotel of Doom" and the "Phantom Hotel." And if you think it doesn't look so bad, ugh. Check it in Google Earth.

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Miscellaneous / Ryugyong Hotel / North Korea Hotels / → All Tags

Ryugyong Hotel: North Korea's Not So Secret Hideout

If Dr. Evil was a real person, he would need a real hideout, and that real hideout may very well be The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea.

The giant dark monolith is 1,082 feet tall, has 105 floors, yet it is completely empty without a single window.

In one bloggers opinion the Ryugong Hotel is "the single most unsettling structure ever erected by the hand of man".

That same blog, Shape of Days, brings up a great question, which is why does Ryugyong Hotel exist in the first place? Certainly it is not to meet North Korea's mounting tourist demand. The hotel was designed to have 3,000 rooms, yet if every single Pyongyang area visitor booked a weeklong stay, the hotel would still be hanging a vacancy sign on the front door.

So why did North Korea build this not-so-secret-hideout-type structure? We agree with Shape of Days, gotta be national pride.

Unfortunately, looks like national pride gone terribly wrong. The North Korean's started this project back in 1987 and have spent around $750 million or 2% of the country's GDP on the Ryugyong Hotel.

Related Stories:
·    The Ryugyong Hotel [The Shape Of Days]