August 3, 2025, 5:48 am | Read time: 3 minutes
It was once meant to be the pride of the communist regime in North Korea, but since 1992, the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang has been abandoned. Whether it will ever be completed is questionable–the cost would be astronomical.
In Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, the abandoned Ryugyong Hotel towers over the rest of the cityscape. It almost resembles a jet fighter about to take off vertically. What was supposed to be a shining testament to the superiority of communism is now the complete opposite. Today, the Ryugyong Hotel is even called the “cursed hotel.”
It’s called cursed because the more than 330-meter-tall building has stood empty since 1992, and even construction workers have abandoned the ostentatious ruin. No one cares for the former showcase project of the North Korean regime, which was supposed to have 3,000 rooms across 105 floors.
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It was supposed to be the tallest hotel in the world
Construction began in 1987 with the aim of becoming the tallest hotel in the world–a testament to the megalomania of then-dictator Kim Jong-il. At that time, as now, the people suffered from hunger and lived in complete isolation. The construction was meant to project the image of a strong, economically potent nation. As “Business Insider” further reports, North Korea lost its most important supporter and financier with the collapse of the Soviet Union. This was to be the premature end for the hotel construction and the regime’s grand plans. An embarrassment so great for the powers that be that they reportedly had the building airbrushed out of official city photos.
Despite the construction halt, several million U.S. dollars had reportedly already been sunk into the concrete tomb by that time. The costs of a possible completion are also shocking. The U.S. website “The Daily Beast,” citing South Korean media, reports that the costs would amount to around two billion U.S. dollars (about 1.8 billion euros).
At least in 2008, an Egyptian consortium from the Orascom business group temporarily resumed construction, according to “Business Insider,” completing the facade and the top of the hotel.
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Who was supposed to stay in the hotel anyway?
In 2012, there were also plans by the Kempinski hotel group to open a resort there–but the negotiations failed. When asked by BILD why a hotel opening would not happen, the company said at the time: “If you look at the political situation in North Korea, you know the answer.”
The question also remains, who would actually stay in this hotel. Tourists are almost nonexistent in North Korea, and the few who do come to the country have a considerable number of accommodations to choose from, as a look at hotel listings on portals like Tripadvisor shows.