Over 30 years after construction largely stopped on North Korea’s 105-story Ryugyong Hotel, the central Pyongyang neighborhood surrounding the empty building dubbed the “hotel of doom” is being transformed into the city’s latest cluster of concrete high-rises.
NK News has obtained exclusive photos of the new apartment towers taken this summer that offer an unfiltered street level view of imperfectly hand-sculpted concrete facades and scant safety measures on construction sites — scenes that North Korean authorities work hard to hide from the outside world.
Over 30 years after construction largely stopped on North Korea’s 105-story Ryugyong Hotel, the central Pyongyang neighborhood surrounding the empty building dubbed the “hotel of doom” is being transformed into the city’s latest cluster of concrete high-rises.
NK News has obtained exclusive photos of the new apartment towers taken this summer that offer an unfiltered street level view of imperfectly hand-sculpted concrete facades and scant safety measures on construction sites — scenes that North Korean authorities work hard to hide from the outside world.
Colin Zwirko is a Senior Analytic Correspondent for NK News based in Seoul. Follow him on Twitter @ColinZwirko.
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