White Elephant: Ryugyong Hotel (North Korea) - the hotel that is on and off under construction since 1987 and never entered service

The Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, is an uncompleted hotel. Construction started in 1987 and was halted several times. Most prominently during the colapse of the Soviet Union.

The hotel existed largely in a rough construction state until 2008. From then, a Egyptian construction company, Orascom, re-started construction on the exterior part of the building. By 2011 they had completed the exterior part of the building.

Up until now, only the exterior part of the building is completed. The interior part is largely empty and no works have commenced on the interior part. In recent years, a large LED panel was fitted to one of the sides of the building.

The building is up until now never used as a hotel. Unkown is why the Egyptian construction company never finished the interior.