Korea Dispatch

Ryugyong Hotel, Pyongyang

A story in Reuters reports construction on Pyongyang’s “Hotel of Doom” has resumed. Apparently begun in 1987 by the late great Kim Il Sung, the project was initiated in response to South Korea’s hosting of the 1988 Olympics, but remained in a “coma” for close to 16 years prior to now. A 330-meter pyramid with well over 3000 rooms, the project is slated to cost $2 billion, or ten percent of the nations economic output.