North Korean 'hotel of doom' may open

• Tweet

PYONGYANG, North Korea, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- A Germany-based hotel company said a 105-story hotel in North Korea, nicknamed the "hotel of doom," may open -- 26 years after the start of construction.

Reto Wittwer, chief executive of the Kempinski group, said the hotel may open next year in Pyongyang but only the 150 rooms at the top of the building would be operated as a hotel, the BBC reported Friday.

He said the rest of the building, on which construction began in 1987, will eventually house stores, restaurants and offices.

Esquire magazine dubbed the hotel the "Worst Building in the History of Mankind" in 2008. The magazine said the building was "hideously ugly, even by communist standards."

The building, which had its construction halted in 1992 due to an economic crisis in North Korea, was nicknamed the "hotel of doom" because of the long period of construction, CNBC reported.