The Ryugyong Hotel, an enormous triangular structure made of concrete and glass in Pyongyang, is one of the most unusual architectural projects of recent times. Its design, which looks like a rocket or a futuristic pyramid, was started in 1987 as a response to a South Korean hotel in Singapore. Construction began on August 28, 1987, with the goal of creating one of the tallest hotels in the world. The building reached its full height in 1992 but was stopped when the Soviet Union collapsed, cutting off North Korea's main commercial partner and source of funding. The unfinished concrete frame remained suspended in the sky over Pyongyang from 1992 to 2008, without windows, interior finishes, or clear plans for completion. In 2008, the Egyptian company Orascom agreed to continue the project in exchange for a monopoly on North Korea's mobile phone network. On July 14, 2011, the building's exterior was officially completed, featuring a smooth glass surface. However, the interior renovation, covering 360,000 square meters, was planned for February 2012 but was never finished. Today, the building is still an empty shell, with no rooms, reception areas, or corridors. No guests have ever been welcomed since construction began. Since 2018, parts of the hotel's facade have been fitted with over 100,000 LED lights, turning the structure into a massive urban screen. Regular light shows, geometric patterns, and propaganda messages are displayed, visible from much of Pyongyang. Despite this, the interior remains completely unoccupied. Finishing the Ryugyong Hotel would cost roughly 5% of North Korea's GDP, making it an impractical project for a country facing international sanctions and economic difficulties. The hotel has become a symbol of the contrast between North Korea's grand ambitions and its limited resources.