Why park here of all places?

Parking here blocks the sightlines for two lanes of traffic and hides pedestrians as they start to cross the street. Why park here?

Well, there are two reasons. The first is a group of reasons that seem to be easily clumped together. They include "everyone does it", "pedestrians and drivers both expect it and know to keep their eyes open" and "no-one is ever punished for it".
The second reason is actually the unexpected consequence of measures to prevent parking elsewhere on the street. In the back-right of the picture you can see pylons dividing the two lanes. These pylons prevent people from turning except at designated points anyone who parks where the pylons are, blocks the whole lane. Both streets, on either side of the intersection, have pylons running down the centerline.

Because people can't park between the intersections they are forced to park at the intersections. Goshdarned annoying, really.

So, in a grumpy mood, I wheeled my son past the car and went to Expo Park. I took him out of his stroller and we walked at a grassy part of the shoreline. I became much grumpier when I saw the refuse some partiers left behind and planned to blog about that, too. My mood improved when I saw Sokcho City employees cleaning the walkway and heading to the mess the partiers had left. Kudos to the cleanup crew. Still, garbage cans would be nice.