RYUGYONG HOTEL

Remember, the construction of the National Library in Kim Il Sung Square took only a few months: the construction of the buildings that become the symbols of the regime must be fast. This is the opposite of what is happening for this hotel, which was to become the largest in the world when it was first built in 1987: 330 m high, 300,000 square metres of floor space on 500 floors, 3000 rooms at least (the number varies according to the sources, sometimes more than 7000!). The cost of the construction was estimated at seven hundred and fifty million euros in 2009 by Japanese media, representing nearly two percent of the country's GDP. The delivery was scheduled two years later, it is still not completed. The fall of the Soviet Union not only undermined the financing of the project but also the supply of the necessary raw materials: the building will remain a carcass without a façade for almost sixteen years. The failure is such that for a few years the government categorically denies the existence of the building and retouches the photos of the capital to make it disappear. It was only when the work resumed in 2008 with the help of an Egyptian group that official communication changed and the hotel's existence was acknowledged. The outer part is completed in 2011 and the government claims to have completed the inner part in 2012 for Kim Il Sung's centenary. This is not the case. In November, the international channel Kempinski expressed its interest in taking over the site before throwing in the towel following the rise in tensions linked to nuclear tests in 2013. Until 2018, some tours carefully avoided passing in front of the building, certainly to avoid having to answer embarrassing questions from foreigners who were sometimes better informed than the guides. However, the situation seems to be changing: in 2018, signs of a resumption of work, such as the construction of a road, suggest that the opening has never been so close.

The current use of the building dominating Pyongyang is not yet clear but it is a landmark in the city, especially since a North Korean flag made of LED light bulbs was installed on a facade of the building in April 2018, marking the capital's economic renewal despite international sanctions.