The floating hotel no-one wants, not even North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered the destruction of a dilapidated luxury hotel which once floated off the north Queensland coast.

Kim reportedly isn't happy with the state of the Hotel Haegumgang - formerly known as the Four Seasons Barrier Reef Resort.

The seven-storey resort with nearly 200 rooms, a nightclub, bars and a helipad opened for business in 1988 and operated for a year about 70 kilometres off Townsville.

But after three decades it's now in North Korea among a "shabby ... hotchpotch" of buildings "with no national character at all" says Kim, according to state media.

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Townsville developer Doug Tarca thought up the structure which was moored off John Brewer Reef.

The Singapore-built building was then sold to a company in Vietnam before ending up off the Korean Peninsula, according to the ABC.

The floating hotel was once a symbol of co-operation between North and South because it attracted tourists from south of the border.

That was up until 2008 when a North Korean guard shot dead a South Korean tourist which resulted in the suspension in tours, according to The Associated Press.

On Wednesday Kim reportedly told officials to remove the "unpleasant-looking facilities" at the Diamond Mountain resort on the North's east coast.