Lotte Moolsan Co., the hotel chain unit of South Korea's Lotte Group, said Wednesday that it plans to spend 3 trillion won (US$2.6 billion) to complete a mammoth skyscraper in southeastern Seoul by 2015.
Lotte Group, the country's fifth-largest conglomerate, has started work on the construction of a 555-meter-high, or 123-story, skyscraper next to the Lotte World amusement park in Jamsil.
The group got final approval for the construction of the building on Nov.
11, 13 years after it broke ground for it in 1998.
The government had brought construction to a halt, citing safety and security reasons, as the site for the planned skyscraper is located just 5.7 kilometers from Seongnam Airport, a strategic Air Force base used by presidents and foreign dignitaries.
If completed, the building will be the highest one in South Korea and the world's second-highest after Burj Khalifa in Dubai, Lotte Moolsan said in a statement.
The skyscraper will feature a six-star luxury hotel, the world's highest observation platform at 495 meters and a department store, the company said.
In a meeting with reporters, Lee Won-woo, chief executive of Lotte Moolsan, said that the building aims to generate $300 million in foreign
exchange earnings by attracting 2.5 million tourists from China and Japan.
"The building is expected to create about 20,000 jobs," Lee added.