Is the worlds tallest building in North Korea?
Dear Cecil: I have read that one of the tallest buildings in the world if not the tallest is a hotel in, of all places, Pyongyang, North Korea. My fragmented knowledge is that it was built after a South Korean company built the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and that it has never been occupied, despite the booming convention business in North Korea these days. But I never find it included in lists of tall buildings. Can you shed any light? — D. Andrew Northend, Arlington, Virginia At 300 meters (985 feet), the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang–there’s a phrase to make your jaw sore–never came close to being the world’s tallest building. But it would have been the world’s tallest hotel, except for two problems: it was never completed, and even if it had been, somebody’s built a taller hotel elsewhere. Always the way in the “world’s tallest” sweepstakes. The North Koreans began constructing the pyramid-shaped Ryugyong in 1987, reportedly aiming for 105 stories to beat out a structure the So
