Legend has it that during the reign of King Jinheung of Silla, the county magistrate of today’s Goryongpo witnessed an extraordinary sight, ten dragons soared skyward as a sudden storm raged. A bolt of lightning hit one of the dragons, causing it to fall into the sea. This somehow calmed the storm and the county was later named Goryongpo, meaning Nine Dragons’ Beach. Located on the near-easternmost point of Korea facing the Sea of Japan, this eup (town) became home to Japanese immigrants around 1906. Most of them were fishermen from the…
