North Korea to finally open "world"s worst" hotel
Talk about a long-anticipated hotel opening: An astonishing 24 years after North Korea first began building the famously hated Ryu-Gyong Hotel in Pyongyang, the hotel"s finally poised to open, the UK"s Telegraph reports.
The massive concrete structure - once called one of the world"s worst buildings - was designed in the shape of a three-sided pyramid. It spans 105 stories and nearly 1,100 feet.
Back in 1987, North Korea had hoped to make it the world"s tallest hotel, despite the fact that the country has few visitors.
TWITTER: Follow Hotel Check-In"s BarbDelollis
PHOTO GALLERY: Take a look inside the world"s tallest hotel
PHOTO GALLERY: Tour top 10 NYC hotels
But by 1992, North Korea had to stop construction when it ran out of money after the fall of the Soviet Union.
In the spring, however, the Telegraph says that North Korea plans to open it to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of the nation"s founder Kim Il-sung.
News of the planned hotel opening comes months after South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that the head of the Egyptian company that"s reportedly working on the project - Naguib Sawiris of Orascom - visited Pyongyang and dined with reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Orascom, which also runs wireless networks in North Korea, has never formally acknowledged its role in resuming the project.
Esquire magazine once hailed the massive tower as "the worst building in the history of mankind," the Telegraph notes.
Some architects have even called f