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Architecture & Engineering


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August 20, 2014

A collapsing high rise and other unique challenges of North Korean construction

  • A bureaucratic shake-up two days after the collapse suggests Pyongyang is trying to bring its design and construction industry more into step with global norms.
    • By ERIC TALMADGE
    Associated Press

    PYONGYANG, North Korea — Pyongyang isn't just any North Korean city. So when a 23-story apartment building under construction collapsed in the center of the showcase capital in May, officials faced a bona fide emergency.

    Their response was in some ways predictable: a grudgingly slow and piecemeal confirmation, followed by scapegoating and spin. Three months later, they still refuse to give a death toll, saying only that it was “serious” and that leader Kim Jong Un “sat up all night, feeling painful after being told about the accident.”


     
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