You, Too, Can Visit North Korea

Ryugyong Hotel a longtime laughingstock

(NEWSER) - More than two decades ago, North Korea began work on a hotel taller than the Chrysler Building. This spring, after years of ridicule, a portion of Pyongyang's Ryugyong Hotel is set to open, the Washington Post reports. The 105-story building made of concrete still isn't ready for tourists, however: It will start as an office complex. The opening is thanks in part to contributions from an Egyptian telecom company—as well as construction work by university students that the government assigned to the project. More»

Panama, Finland, and Myanmar top the list

(NEWSER) - If you like cool design, upscale safaris, or a forbidden communist island, the New York Times can recommend 45 locales to visit in 2012. Among them:

• Panama. See the world-famous canal before its expansion, then stay for Panama City's economic boom and Frank Gehry's first design in Latin America—a natural history museum called BioMuseo.

Kim Jong Un walks alongside father's hearse

(NEWSER) - Tens of thousands of soldiers lined the snowy streets of Pyongyang today as North Korea began two days of funeral services for Kim Jong Il. Successor Kim Jong Un walked alongside the hearse, followed by other senior officials who included his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, the AP reports. State television, clearly strained to cover the motorcade along the 25-mile route, broadcast footage of throngs of wailing mourners. More»

Unlike his father, late leader likely to be buried

(NEWSER) - Kim Jong Il is currently lying in state in Pyongyang, but North Koreans may not have much longer to view him: A shortage of skills and cold hard cash means the late Dear Leader will likely be buried instead of being preserved for display like his father, Kim Il Sung, the Guardian finds. More»

Weeping crowds fill streets of Pyongyang

(NEWSER) - North Korea's propaganda machine gave Kim Jong Il the status of a demigod—one that the totalitarian state is now mourning. Video aired on Chinese TV shows throngs of people in Pyongyang weeping at news of the leader's sudden death , reports Reuters , and state TV reports that people are "writhing in pain." A 10-day period of mourning has been declared ahead of Kim's funeral on Dec. 28. Similar scenes followed the death of Kim's father, Kim Il Sung, in 1994, and there were reports of many people being crushed to death among the huge crowds that attended his funeral, notes the Daily Mail . More»