North Korea Hotel Forbidden 5 Floor

Yanggakdo International Hotel.

The fifth floor of the hotel has been a source of curiosity among foreigners because it is off-limits to hotel guests. The elevators do not stop on the fifth floor; hence, there is no fifth-floor button on the elevator panel. The fifth floor has occasionally been visited "unofficially" via staircase by tourists exploring the hotel. It is reported to be further split into two separate floors, with mostly locked rooms, and is decorated with propaganda posters. Tourists have also reported seeing surveillance equipment apparently used to observe guests' rooms. One Western travel agency specialising in tours of North Korea has described the fifth floor as "actually just a service level much like would be found in any hotel, and strictly off limits to tourists."

On 2 January 2016, a visiting American university student, Otto Warmbier, was arrested on a charge of attempting to steal a political propaganda banner from a restricted area of the hotel.