Forgive me for returning, after the fact, to two curiosities about Pyongyang, both involving hotels.
When workers built a huge tourist hotel on an island in the Taedong River, safely isolated from the rest of the city, they designed a nine-hole golf course next to it.
We stayed in rooms on the 26th floor at the hotel, and I kept peering down at the golf course – just in case I’d catch a glimpse of the greatest golfer alive, someone who leaves Tiger Woods in the amateur leagues.
That golfer is -- who else? – Kim Jong Il, the Dear Leader, a man of unparalleled achievements. To wit: North Korea’s official media says that on his very first golf outing, Kim hit 11 holes-in-one. Let’s see Tiger match that!
The second curiosity involves a reference point on the Pyongyang horizon. It is the 105-story Ryugyong Hotel, a hulk of an unoccupied structure. Construction began in 1987 and ceased in 1992. There’s been nary an explanation. The pyramid-shaped hotel was to have 3,000 rooms and seven revolving restaurants.
Our tour guides refused to take us close to the skeletal structure, saying only that North Korea ran out of money to finish the hotel.
But there are other versions. One says the hotel structure was deemed unsafe, so it was abandoned before even windows and fixtures were installed. In a normal country, such an unfinished project would be an embarrassment to the government. In North Korea, the government just remains mum.
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