Robert at the Marmot’s hole is shocked that to pay around $1 billion to fund the construction of Pyongyang’s empty white-elephant hotel.:

When Incheon mayor Ahn Sang-soo came back from Pyongyang with an
agreement to make a co-hosting bid for the 2014 Asian Games, it went
without saying that his city’s taxpayers also earned the privilege of pumping tons of cash into North Korea to develop its sporting and tourist infrastructure.  Nothing prepared me for this, however:

Ahn reportedly vowed to finish construction of the Ryugyong Hotel in
downtown Pyongyang, a famous structure 105 stories and 300 m tall — but
a skeleton unfinished for 13 years. An official said experts estimate
the additional construction costs at US$500 million. Add the repair
costs, and it would come out to US$1 billion, he said.

Robert notes that some are puzzled because of North Korea’s denial of - or perhaps obliviousness to - the Ryugyong Hotel’s existence.:

It’s no longer on the city’s maps. Guides claim not to know where it
is. No one speaks of it. This state of affairs is made all the more
surreal by the fact that the almost incomprehensibly massive Ryugyong
is visible from every part of Pyongyang. It hangs over the horizon, never far out of sight.

Duh, that’s because it’s Kim Jong-il’s secret lair. Even in democratic Townsville no one notices evil villain Mojo Jojo’s lair.