Who knew North Korea had the second largest hotel in the world? Too bad it’s deserted.

Ryugyong Hotel was one of Kim Jong Il‘s plans of really putting North Korea on the World Map. He thought the best way to do that would be to build the world’s largest structure. The Koreans started buillding Ryugyong in 1987 but ceased construction in 1992 due to serious financial difficulties. The country never recovered from its financial crisis so the work on Ryugyong never picked up, until 2008 when the government decided to resume work on their giant super-structure.

With North Korea‘s tourism at an absolute low, Ryugyong Hotel will probably be nothing more than a really large building, although Kim Jong Il has tried to convince the world that his huge hotel is a success by faking images and spreading them in the media.