10/03/03 01:33:41.51 W0hy5+/K0
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Korea and Japan have had tumultous relations throughout history, and this national rivalry was
likely to be reheated during the recent figure skating competition between South Korean skater
Yu-Na Kim and Japanese skater Mao Asada at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
And lo and behold, Japanese BBS 2ch suffered a massive cyber attack on March 1 from what was
later identified as Korean web users. Timed to coincide with the March 1 national holiday
celebrating Korea's 1919 rebellion against its colonial overlord Japan, Korean netizens banded
together to silence 2ch after a thread on the site offered comments suggesting that Kim had bribed
the judges. A clip from NTV claiming that Mao should have had a higher score also is believed to
have fueled the Korean anger.
Most Japanese have generally accepted Asada's defeat with resignation rather than indignation, but
2ch, famous as a hotbed of nationalistic opinion, was a likely source of anti-Kim sentiment. When
paired with the South Korean zeal for its own Olympic victories and defeats, these two parties
were due for an online clash.
While 2ch may seem like a victim in this case, we should remind you that Japanese netizens back in
2008 crashed the Korean VANK server when Asada defeated Kim at the Grand Prix final in
Goyang, Korea. For East Asians, attacking a website in your rival's country is just the way to
celebrate figure skating victory -- like tearing down the goalpost for Americans.
This current episode will not likely be the final skirmish in what may be a longer war. Kyodo News
claims that 77,000 Korean net users have joined a community pledging to continue cyber attacks
against Japanese websites. Perhaps a peace conference can be held at the convenient Tsushima
Island -- with special appearances from Mao Asada and Yu-Na Kim. They don't have to skate or
anything. They just have to tell everyone to knock it off and move on with their lives.