Hotel of Doom

Abstract

Broadcast Transcript: If you build a luxury hotel in a city that discourages tourists from visiting, who'll stay there? It's like a bad Zen koan, isn't it? But it's not hypothetical: it refers to the Ryugyong Hotel aka The Hotel of Doom in Pyongyang, North Korea. Called "the worst building in the history of mankind" by Esquire Magazine, work was halted on it in 1992 when Russia cut off the funding. So now the building, once a symbol of the greatness of the Communist state, once pictured on postage stamps, was suddenly being airbrushed out of photographs. For the past 16 years, its empty shell has been a symbol of the country's decline. Now, however, there's talk of finishing it to the tune of two billion dollars. Reservations anybody? I can think of a few. #ceas #hacker #NorthKorea