Mick Hartley

A picture taken this week, apparently, of the brand new shiny Ryugyong Hotel:

For years it looked like this: an unfinished nightmare in concrete looming menacingly over Pyongyang. Work on the 105-story monstrosity – often dubbed the ugliest building in the world – started back in 1987, then stopped for 16 years in 1992 when the money ran out, amid rumours of shoddy construction. The North Korean government then, absurdly, denied the building's existence, manipulated official photographs in order to remove the structure, and excluded it from printed maps of Pyongyang. In effect it became a huge embarrassing metaphor of the whole ghastly Juche enterprise: the elephant in the city.

Then in April 2008 an Egyptian company, the Orascom Group, which was heavily involved in North Korean telecoms and construction, was brought in to smarten it up. Or was persuaded to do so in return for unspecified privileges.

Full completion is expected by 2012, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the birth of "Eternal President" Kim Il-sung. But for now, or so we're led to believe, the external work is complete.

Personally I'd like to take a look round the back. As I've said before, this is surely a cosmetic exercise. But at least, from this side, the elephant's looking a bit smarter.