That website is hilarious. It's gottta be run by the NK propaganda ministry, comrades.

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/weekend-web/dprk-ratemymelons.php
"Only in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea can you erect a half-built pyramid shaped skyscraper in a virtually empty city center and claim that things are going swell."

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Just an update - the "new construction" may just be cosmetic -

Over the years, Japanese and South Korean companies have reportedly refused to take on the project because of concerns it was unstable or economically unfeasible. But the Egyptian conglomerate Orascom agreed to a face lift as part of a $400-million deal reached this year to install a cellphone network in North Korea.

Orascom's resident project manager, Mahmoud Fawzi, said his company at the very least hoped to redo the facade to make it more attractive.

If the Ryugyong is salvaged, it would give Pyongyang a big psychological boost. For years, North Korean guides have pretended the hotel wasn't there, refusing to answer the inevitable question from first-time visitors, "What's THAT?"

North Korea is so embarrassed by the structure that it frequently airbrushes it out of official photographs. Now people are again showing a glimmer of pride in the building.

One confident tour guide, Oh Keum Suk, predicted: "Come back to Pyongyang in 2012 and you can stay in a room at the top."

http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/mayfaire/latimes0168.htm

I wouldn't stay there no matter how nice the facade is.

$400 million to install a cell-phone network?

Didn't know they had that kind of money to spare.

It does seem unrealistic. Almost a half-billion dollars? And for a communication network in a country that tries to limit information?

"Phones do not allow contact with the outside world, or with the special telephone networks that foreigners are normally permitted to use inside North Korea." - google.

They won't be able to talk to foreigners, and the government will be able to listen to all private calls on the cell network. Sounds like NK to me.