Ryugyong Hotel: The story of North Korea's 'Hotel of Doom'
In 1987, ground was broken on a grand new hotel in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang. The pyramid-shaped, supertall skyscraper was to exceed 1,000 feet in height, and was designed to house at least 3,000 rooms, as well as five revolving restaurants with panoramic views.The Ryugyong Hotel – named after a historical moniker for Pyongyang meaning "capital of willows" – was supposed to open just two years later. But it never did. While the structure reached its planned height in 1992, it stood windowless and hollow for another 16 years, its naked concrete exposed, like a menacing monster overlooking the city. During that time the building, which dwarfs everything around it, earned itself the nickname "Hotel of Doom."
