Ryugyong hotel construction continues…
UPDATE: In the comments, a reader provides a link to a picture of the construction that dates back to June.
ORIGINAL POST: Back in May, we reported that Orascom, the latest company to try and build a mobile phone network in North Korea, was also going to re-start construciton of Pyongyang’s famous white elephant, the Ryugyong Hotel.
According to Reuters, construction has begun:
Once dubbed by Esquire magazine as “the worst building in the history of mankind”, the 105-storey Ryugyong Hotel is back under construction after a 16-year lull in the capital of one of the world’s most reclusive and destitute countries.
According to foreign residents in Pyongyang, Egypt’s Orascom group has recently begun refurbishing the top floors of the three-sided pyramid-shaped hotel whose 330-metre (1,083 ft) frame dominates the Pyongyang skyline.
The firm has put glass panels into the concrete shell, installed telecommunications antennas — even though the North forbids its citizens to own mobile phones — and put up an artist’s impression of what it will look like.
This is still my favorite construction plan.
Read the full story here:
North Korea’s “Hotel of Doom” wakes from its coma
Reuters
Jon Herskovitz
7/17/2008
July 17th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Although not entirely conclusive, it looks like one travelers recent pictures show some new activity up top:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fljckr/2605005424/sizes/o/
July 18th, 2008 at 9:54 am
This doesn’t make any sense to me. First of all the structure has to be in bad shape, secondly why doesn an Egyption company have interest?, and last Im not even sure the area has enough income to support such a massive structure.
August 8th, 2008 at 1:06 am
[…] telecommunications company, and its plan to set up a mobile phone network in the area (as reported here and here, though with few details). Thus, more than likely, the main interest this company has in […]