Most undoubtedly. Given my non-expert outsider cursory knowledge of North Korea, the hotel will likely never be finished and will remain for show. They'll probably finish the main lobby and a handful of rooms — just enough to give the impression of how grandiose it is. Keeping up appearances.
Also, consider what happens to concrete being exposed like that for two decades. The concrete isn't meant for decades of weather, it's meant to be enclosed. The concrete degrades and becomes unsafe. Same thing has happened with a lot of the Dubai skyscrapers whose construction was halted, and they were only exposed for a few years (so says a Dubai contractor friend).
Just some background info: The new contractor, Orascom [1], has been issued a licence to operate the North Korean 3G Network [2]. Orascom is both a telecommunications and a construction company.
I doubt that their plan is to use the hotel exclusively as a giant antenna, but it's not unlikely that finishing the facade was a political priority, while operating the hotel is not.
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Wow. So it's mostly unfinished inside?
Most undoubtedly. Given my non-expert outsider cursory knowledge of North Korea, the hotel will likely never be finished and will remain for show. They'll probably finish the main lobby and a handful of rooms — just enough to give the impression of how grandiose it is. Keeping up appearances.
Also, consider what happens to concrete being exposed like that for two decades. The concrete isn't meant for decades of weather, it's meant to be enclosed. The concrete degrades and becomes unsafe. Same thing has happened with a lot of the Dubai skyscrapers whose construction was halted, and they were only exposed for a few years (so says a Dubai contractor friend).
Just some background info: The new contractor, Orascom [1], has been issued a licence to operate the North Korean 3G Network [2]. Orascom is both a telecommunications and a construction company.
I doubt that their plan is to use the hotel exclusively as a giant antenna, but it's not unlikely that finishing the facade was a political priority, while operating the hotel is not.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orascom_Group
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel#Construction_res...