Some gems from the Wikipedia entry.

In the late 1990s, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Korea inspected the building and concluded that the structure was irreparable. Questions were raised regarding the quality of the building's concrete and the alignment of its elevator shafts, which some sources say are "crooked".

In April 2008, after 16 years of inactivity, work on the building was restarted by the Egyptian company Orascom Group. Orascom, which has entered into a $400 million deal with the North Korean government to build and run a 3G mobile phone network, has denied that their telecommunications deal was directly related to the Ryugyong Hotel work. In 2008 North Korean officials stated that the hotel would be completed by 2012, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the birth of the "Eternal President", Kim Il-sung.

In 2009 Orascom's chief operating officer Khaled Bichara noted that they "had not had too many problems" resolving the reported structural issues of the building, and that a revolving restaurant will be located at the top of the building.


Well, I'm convinced.

I think it's kinda neat looking.

It'd be even neater if North Korea used that money to feed people or something.

Even if the hotel is amazing, you are still in farking North Korea! Who in their right mind says, hey I know where we should go on vacation. North Korea! Lots of great stuff to do with the government monitors tailing us all the time!

Upvote for the Galaga reference!

/Oh wait...

What an architectural atrocity.
I'd say it was inspired by minecraft if minecraft was a decade older.

Sybarite: Some gems from the Wikipedia entry.

In the late 1990s, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Korea inspected the building and concluded that the structure was irreparable. Questions were raised regarding the quality of the building's concrete and the alignment of its elevator shafts, which some sources say are "crooked".

....

In 2009 Orascom's chief operating officer Khaled Bichara noted that they "had not had too many problems" resolving the reported structural issues of the building, and that a revolving restaurant will be located at the top of the building.


Well, I'm convinced.

I've read about this too. It sounds scary. Although, I can think of a boondoggle nearly as bad in the US, specifically in The Meadowlands of NJ...

Horrible human rights violations aside, I find North Korea fascinating. It's like something out of dystopian science fiction. I should read more about it.

Link to the article next time, instead of a page that says "click here to read the whole story", retardmitter.

Does every room come with a complimentary sledge-o-matic?

I'm not sure why it would be considered ugly. It's no worst than anything you might see in the Las Vegas or San Fracisco skyline.

Is not worst Galaga-inspired hotel, is best Galaga-inspired hotel!

Ivandrago: Horrible human rights violations aside, I find North Korea fascinating. It's like something out of dystopian science fiction. I should read more about it.

Look up a book called "Escape from Camp 14." If darkly fascinating is what you're after, you won't regret it. I promise.

Ivandrago: Horrible human rights violations aside, I find North Korea fascinating. It's like something out of dystopian science fiction. I should read more about it.

If you have Netflix streaming or Amazon Prime, there are several documentaries you can watch. At the time I watched them, they were free. You should check them out, although I see now some of them cost to rent. All were fascinating.

Crossing the Line
Kimjongilia
A State of Mind
National Geographic - Inside North Korea

way south: What an architectural atrocity.
I'd say it was inspired by minecraft if minecraft was a decade older.

FTFA: North Korea began building the Ryugyong in the 1980s but stopped when funding ran out in the 1990s

From the Minecraft Wiki: Minecraft development started around the 10th of May 2009


Whut?

Slideshow stalled, gave up.

Ivandrago: Horrible human rights violations aside, I find North Korea fascinating. It's like something out of dystopian science fiction. I should read more about it.

Journey into Kimland is a pretty neat link. It's about an English teacher in South Korea who goes on a trip to North Korea for the Ararang festival. He took lots of photos and he also speaks fluent Korean.

Bhags: way south: What an architectural atrocity.
I'd say it was inspired by minecraft if minecraft was a decade older.

FTFA: North Korea began building the Ryugyong in the 1980s but stopped when funding ran out in the 1990s

From the Minecraft Wiki: Minecraft development started around the 10th of May 2009


Whut?

It can happen to any of us....

Ivandrago: Horrible human rights violations aside, I find North Korea fascinating. It's like something out of dystopian science fiction. I should read more about it.

Come to think of it, North Korea did become a state in the same year 1984 was first published...

I've heard this abomination is so poorly constructed that elevators cannot travel their full distance because the shafts are misaligned. One can onyl wonder what other flaws are in there.

And, what kind of diseased life form would you have to be to want to take a vacation......IN NORTH KOREA??

Challenging Stage! Shoot all 40 defectors before they cross the DMZ!

(If you get 40 out of 40, you get 10,000 calories of food rations for the week. Miss one, and it's 3,900 calories for the week. And, of course, no bonus lives at 70,000 unless you're part of the Inner Party.)

Colin O'Scopy: Link to the article next time, instead of a page that says "click here to read the whole story", retardmitter.

Now, maybe the mods changed the link, but the link takes me directly to the full article. At least it appears to be so. I didn't see any reference to there being more content than was on the page.

I don't know much about hotels, but 150 rooms doesn't sound like a lot for something that size. Maybe they meant that's how many will be available since it's only partially opening?

Deslidefied Link
Holy shiat!!! Slide 10. Best Korea has hover bumper cars!!!
Or Photoshop.

USCLaw2010: Does every room come with a complimentary sledge-o-matic?

*shakes tiny fist*

105-story hotel has 150 rooms. Makes sense.

pyrotek85: I don't know much about hotels, but 150 rooms doesn't sound like a lot for something that size. Maybe they meant that's how many will be available since it's only partially opening?

It could probably hold ten times that, but with slanted, crooked elevator shafts, nothing short of the Great Glass Elevator could get higher than a few floors.

Pontious Pilates: Ivandrago: Horrible human rights violations aside, I find North Korea fascinating. It's like something out of dystopian science fiction. I should read more about it.

Look up a book called "Escape from Camp 14." If darkly fascinating is what you're after, you won't regret it. I promise.

NutWrench: Ivandrago: Horrible human rights violations aside, I find North Korea fascinating. It's like something out of dystopian science fiction. I should read more about it.

Journey into Kimland is a pretty neat link. It's about an English teacher in South Korea who goes on a trip to North Korea for the Ararang festival. He took lots of photos and he also speaks fluent Korean.

Thanks for the tips! I'll look into reading both of them.

Good place to store ICBM's

Smoky Dragon Dish:
I can think of a boondoggle nearly as bad in the US, specifically in The Meadowlands of NJ...



"Breakout inspired"

Who's going to stay there? Tourists? From where? There to see what?
 

I don't get it.

I'll never forget the day in chemistry class when Merle figured out what the Galaga sounds are:

particle ion...particle ion...particle ion...

Pontious Pilates: Ivandrago: Horrible human rights violations aside, I find North Korea fascinating. It's like something out of dystopian science fiction. I should read more about it.

Look up a book called "Escape from Camp 14." If darkly fascinating is what you're after, you won't regret it. I promise.

Holy shiat. I will get this book this afternoon.

Smoky Dragon Dish: Ivandrago: Horrible human rights violations aside, I find North Korea fascinating. It's like something out of dystopian science fiction. I should read more about it.

If you have Netflix streaming or Amazon Prime, there are several documentaries you can watch. At the time I watched them, they were free. You should check them out, although I see now some of them cost to rent. All were fascinating.

Crossing the Line
Kimjongilia
A State of Mind
National Geographic - Inside North Korea

Alternatively all are available on youtube also.

TV's Vinnie: And, what kind of diseased life form would you have to be to want to take a vacation......IN NORTH KOREA??

People who like to see things for themselves instead of taking the word of the government and the media? Of course anyone who goes to North Korea is going to get a highly censored version of the country but they'll still learn way more than they could from books. One of my friends went a few years ago (he's a bit crazy... has also been to Iran). One of the rules is that you can only take photos if your military guide is in the photo with you. So he has lots of photos with his tour group of college age Europeans and one older North Korean solider in his dress uniform. Looks very pedobear. He even has a huge creepy smile in each photo.

I'm sure it was a much more interesting trip than going some place like Pensacola, Florida.

Maybe this will inspire China to finish their not Disney park now.....

protectyourlimbs: Maybe this will inspire China to finish their not Disney park now.....

[25.media.tumblr.com image 500x326]

Wow China is just like Mordor

loki see loki do: Pontious Pilates: Ivandrago: Horrible human rights violations aside, I find North Korea fascinating. It's like something out of dystopian science fiction. I should read more about it.

Look up a book called "Escape from Camp 14." If darkly fascinating is what you're after, you won't regret it. I promise.

Holy shiat. I will get this book this afternoon.

Yeah, I wish I was on commission with the publisher. I think I've sold at least six copies. It's really good.

FTFA: North Korea began building the Ryugyong in the 1980s but stopped when funding ran out in the 1990s

when funding ran out in the 1990s = The checks the Soviets were sending started to bounce.

And I bet they don't even have free wifi.

Bisu: 105-story hotel has 150 rooms. Makes sense.

Those are the 150 rooms where the floor, walls, and ceiling weren't obviously structurally compromised and they could put people without them falling through or being crushed by raining debris from above...

Ivandrago: Horrible human rights violations aside, I find North Korea fascinating. It's like something out of dystopian science fiction. I should read more about it.

There's a guy here who's been in and taken pictures. They're fascinating. (Dunno if he's already in the thread, haven't looked yet)

RembrandtQEinstein

Wow China is just like Mordor


That's true. One does not simply walk into China.

I thought I blew that thing up in Mercenaries.

Looks like a German company is going to manage it.

How exactly is that happening? Aren't there UN sanctions in place to prevent that sort of thing?

protectyourlimbs: Maybe this will inspire China to finish their not Disney park now.....

[25.media.tumblr.com image 500x326]

Okay, when Best Korea tears down their wall I really wanna get a good look at this stuff. The Galaga Building looks like a photoshop it's so out there. Like they tried to go Blade Runner on us. Who knows what wonders are there that their own public doesn't even know about.

RembrandtQEinstein: protectyourlimbs: Maybe this will inspire China to finish their not Disney park now.....

[25.media.tumblr.com image 500x326]

Wow China is just like Mordor

Would be an awesome place to have a horror themed Disney land, zombie land?

Marcintosh: Who's going to stay there? Tourists? From where? There to see what?
[blogs.scientificamerican.com image 548x700] 

I don't get it.

I guess it'd be a good place to build an astronomical observatory, as far as the light pollution conditions are concerned...

Of course, Japan just over the sea might be casting enough of a nighttime glow to offset that, not to mention Seoul.

What I have read of the history of the Korean Peninsula fascinates me. Did you know that the US had, for awhile, placed tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea? They've all been withdrawn, but we actually unilaterally violated the armistice by introducing new types of weapons that were not present in the Korean War. Both Koreas have staged raids into the others' territory (with the North not really publicizing the South's, but the North's being well covered in the press in the South) and the North has tunneled under the South extensively in their odd invasion preparedness.

I'm reminded of a Star Trek: TNG episode entitled "Attached" where a planet with two nations on it, the Kes and the Prytt, had one nation petitioning to join the Federation. Initially the faction wanting to join seemed fairly normal, but the further one gets into the episode and sees them and the other side, one sees how truly farked up both are. I have a sneaking suspicion that this was inspired by countries like the Koreas, the Germanies, and other divided nations throughout history.

RembrandtQEinstein: protectyourlimbs: Maybe this will inspire China to finish their not Disney park now.....

[25.media.tumblr.com image 500x326]

Wow China is just like Mordor

Considering that Tolkien included themes about the loss of idyllic, peaceful agrarian society (the Shire) in favor of the early coal-fired industrial revolution with all of its bleak ugliness (Orc society and its processes for preparing for battle), you're probably more on the mark with that comment than you realize.

That tumblr-sourced picture reminds me of a John Boorman film. Soft light, hazy fog, grey coloring. Could be a scene from Zardoz or Excalibur...

All those structural problems will go away - once the building reaches orbit.

"Roo rilly rirthmen" The Dear Leaderrette will broadcast. "Re rar ra rue reople of ra rosmos! Roodrye for rever, ruckers!"

To which the Earth will reply "Huh? Wha?"

NutWrench: Ivandrago: Horrible human rights violations aside, I find North Korea fascinating. It's like something out of dystopian science fiction. I should read more about it.

Journey into Kimland is a pretty neat link. It's about an English teacher in South Korea who goes on a trip to North Korea for the Ararang festival. He took lots of photos and he also speaks fluent Korean.

This is fantastic. I'm only on chapter 3 and loving it.