And after the quick look at Daegu, it was a short train ride southeastwards to the my final destination in Korea, the port city of Busan, also the second largest city after Seoul. Geographically almost exactly at diagonally opposite ends of the country vis-a-vis the capital Seoul, Busan nevertheless has much importance of its own to boast of. It was pretty much the only large city standing after the initial wave of attacks from the North during the Korean War, and it was using Busan as the military base that the Southern and allied UN forces were able to eventually beat back the Northern troops, retake Seoul, and in fact even temporarily capture Pyeongyang, before a Chinese-backed counter-offensive eventually pushed forces back to the infamous 38th parallel, leading to an uneasy armistice stalemate that still remains
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