The ozone layer above the Korean Peninsula is thickening thanks to international cooperation on recovering the ozone layer across the world.
 
The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said Wednesday that the average amount of ozone in the stratosphere of Seoul increased from 317 Dobson Unit (DU) in 1985 to 325 DU last year. In the eastern port city of Pohang, it increased from 304 DU in 1994 to 318 DU in 2013.
 
The KMA credited the thickening to the steady international efforts to reduce chlorofluorocarbons, the destroyer of the ozone layer, under the Montreal Protocol signed in 1987.
 
The World Meteorological Organization said on September 10 that the ozone layer worldwide will recover within several decades. It said the stratosphere ozone layers in the Arctic and middle-latitude areas will thicken to the levels of 1980 by the 2050s.