The twin-towered Koryo Hotel building is 143 metres (469 ft) tall and contains 43 stories.

[2][3][4] Erected in 1985[4][5] under Kim Il Sung, it was intended to "showcase the glory and strength of the DPRK."

[1] A section of the hotel reportedly caught fire on 11 June 2015 due to undisclosed circumstances, leaving the bridge between the two buildings badly damaged.

For a time after 1946, the leader of North Korea's Democratic Party Cho Man-sik was kept under house arrest in the older Koryo Hotel.

The hotel's extravagance is exemplified by its entryway, which consists of a 9-metre (30 ft) wide jade dragon's mouth[1] that leads into an expansive lobby dominated by a mosaic of North Korean cultural symbols.

[4] The restaurants are operated by Japanese expatriates and are run as private businesses, but they must pay a fee to the state.