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Kyong Po Beach is a popular destination for Kangnung residents. In midsummer it's packed,
in part because the temperature there is often much lower than that in the sweltering city.
But on a cool weekday in May, the beach is fairly quiet as Margaret watches the tide come in
along with two small friends. South Korea is in some ways still partly defined by the Korean War, which never officially ended. The military rakes the sand on Kyong Po beach each night, to ensure that footprints of a possible North Korean invasion force will show the following morning (this also makes for a pleasantly clean beach). Other troops regularly change the scenery on the less public parts of the beach, to fool automatic landing and targeting equipment. As in this photo, the sky over Korea is blue only right after a rain; then, gradually, it turns back to a smoggy blue-grey. Kangnung boasts Korea's cleanest air, but that's not saying much. These days, Seoul's air is reportedly murkier than Tokyo's. Twenty years ago it was industry's fault; today, Korea's rapidly growing motor vehicle population carries more of the blame.
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