Urban Decay...The year was 1987, North Korea, hoping to outdo their Southern rivals, begins construction of the largest hotel in the world--a 105-floor, cement monstrosity popping out of the earth like a Star Destroyer. In perhaps the most short-sighted, tastless, and completely moronic of decision processes, North Korean leadership hoped to attract an Olympic Games bid with this hideous, Stalinist take on the tower of Babel. So, with much enthusiasm, the country began building a structure, ugly as sin, that would end up costing the country roughly $750 million U.S. dollars--or 2% of the nations GDP. Let me say that again: 2% of the nation's GDP.
Although, to be fair, what can we expect from a country that has a metro system that looks like it
belongs in 1950's, Soviet Bloc Yugoslavia? The project, hoped to be completed in June of 1989, instead limped along like the North Korean economy, finally grinding to a halt in 1992 as the money finally began to dry up, electrical systems throughout the country began collapsing, and the country experienced what could be the most destructive famine in the history of famines since people started ingesting food. But damn did they have a wonderful-looking concrete shell! In fact, the building did break a world record in the 16 years after 1992, becoming the world's tallest, largest, and ugliest example of urban blight.In the 16 years it sat dormant, the North Korean government worked tirelessly to have the massive structure magically purged from the population's collective memory, removing it from postage stamps, blotting it out of government images of the skyline, and even going to far as to limit all information about the structure itself. The structure, having fallen into decay, would sit like this, untouched for nearly two decades. The crane mounted at the top (where the revolving restaurant was supposed to be) became as permanent a blight as the building itself. Even as it sat, there were serious questions about whether it could ever be open as constructed, because no one is really sure how the concrete was engineered, not to mention the lack of windows and fixtures meant it was open to the elements. It's haunted appearance led many in the media to lambaste it as the worst building ever, and "the phantom hotel."
Of course, its sudden abandonment wasn't the only confusing thing about this undertaking. What, in the name of Kim Il-Sung, was North Korea going to do with a 3,000 room hotel? There can't possibly be that many Nigerian Uranium dealers in the world, so is it a four-star political prison? Or is it just a giant cover for Kim's new Death Laser System? No one was quite sure during the time it sat dormant. Then, suddenly, in 2008, construction resumed and some rumors floated around about Egyptian construction firms and the ghost of Gamal Nasser. All
anyone could be sure of was that suddenly, the building had some glass on it, and more people in North Korea were starving. Why the sudden interest again? Well, there's certainly no logical answer to be found here. The root of this insane construction project was Kim's own crazy cult of personality in North Korea and its resumption can only be for the same reason. Kim, ignoring all the real problems his country faces, will get his five star, gigantic ghost town of a hotel even if it takes another 2% of the nation's GDP. Who will stay there is anyone's guess, but communist regimes have always had a tendency to envision grandiose projects with no real purpose--ironic because of the supposed utilitarianism of communism. But even Stalin, at the height of his crazy, never went through with the plan for the Palace of Soviets, a massive, all-consuming tower of Communism. Granted, this was only because of the German invasion and the Second World War. Still, its not like the North doesn't have its plethora of problems to distract from a giant hotel. But of course, no one has ever claimed that North Korea's leadership has ever made sense. The monstrous Ryugyong Hotel is, if anything, clear evidence of the lack of sane thought and rationality in Kim's brain. Perhaps its all that black hair dye, or the copious amounts of $20,000 brandy he consumes while watching his massive DVD collection. Hey, he needs to keep his mind off the problems of his country. And, anyway, no country that claims to have an eternal president can possibly make sense. Here's to hoping the view's great.
