North Korea Ryugyong 'Hotel of Doom' may open next year

The Ryugyong Hotel has become a symbol of North Korea's
 economic problems 

The 105-storey hotel which dominates the skyline of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, may open next year, 26 years after construction began.

The pyramid-shaped building has become known as the "Hotel of Doom".

The chief executive of the Kempinski group, which will manage the Ryugyong hotel, said only 150 rooms on the top floors would be used as a hotel.

Reto Wittwer said shops, restaurants and offices would eventually open on the lower levels.

Construction on the building began in 1987.

It is the 47th tallest building in the world, at 330m (1,100ft), and has the fifth greatest number of floors, 105.

It was scheduled to be completed in 1989 in time for the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students.

But construction was abandoned in 1992 when North Korea suffered an economic crisis.

- BBC.co.uk