I guess it had to happen. Yonhap News (Korean) reports that Korean and Japanese Netizens are currently engaged in a “Cyber-Imjinwaeran” over the Dokdo issue. The Imjinwaeran, of course, refers to the seven year-long war that began in 1592 when Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched a full-scale invasion of Korea as a first step in his futile attempt to become Emperor of China (check out Chapter 12 of the online edition of Korea in the Eye of the Tiger for a great history of the bloody encounter). Anyway, the Yonhap piece reports that Korean and Japanese Netizens are launching cyber-attacks on each others websites through such measures as overwhelming servers with traffic and flaming on opposing bulletin boards. Anyway, a group of sites — all listed in the Yonhap report, BTW — apparently formed an alliance to have Korean Netizens shut down the Japanese forum site 2CH using programs designed to shut down targeted websites by flooding their servers with traffic. The site was down for two days before its administrators shut off connections to South Korea. What the site said that pissed so many people off, I don’t know because, well, they shut off connections to South Korea. Anyway, the story claims that Japanese Netizens (apparently, 2CH is their preferred site) are planning to retaliate against Korean websites on Sunday (today), but I have yet to hear of anything unusual.
Meanwhile, on bulletin boards in their respective countries, Netizens are trading strategies with the like-minded, but to prevent the other side from learning their strategems via robot translation programs, they are employing “wegye-oe” — literally, the term means “alien language,” and refers to an online language employed by Korean Netizens using a mixture of symbols, Roman letters, and numerals in a way that butchers Korean grammatical rules and is much despised by language purists. Of course, that has not stopped Korean Netizens from using their robot translaters from leaving obscenity-laced posts on Japanese boards, and one would have to assume visa versa.
Yonhap gives credit to Doggaebi News for reporting about a Japanese website — The K-Country Way — that apparently was posting derrogatory photos about Korea. The site has been shut down via Korean Netizen attack, and some other creative souls in this land have made a parody site called the J-Country Way, which is worth taking a look at if viewing extremely derrogatory pictures about the Japanese, contributed by visitors, is your sort of thing — it’s gallery is here.
Meanwhile, courtesy Sports Today, we have Shin Cheon-ho, head of the Millennium Democratic Party’s cyber-planning department (or whatever it’s English name is called), saying that he’s planning an Internet campaign in which Korean Netizens attach picture files of the Dokdo stamps to their e-mails. This is in addition to his plans to create post-cards with the stamp attached to them, as well as a letter campaign (stamp campaign, really) in which Koreans send Dokdo-stamp affixed letters to their friends and Korean residents in Japan. Oh, and did I mention he plans to send a book of Dokdo stamps Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao so that the three nations can make a joint stand against “Japan’s nature of imperialistic invasion” (best translation I could come up with. Sorry).
If I may, could I suggest sending a book of King Gwanggaeto the Great or Ulchi Mundok stamps to Wen, too, while you’re at it?
NOTE: Pic of “54th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan stamp” ripped off from Doggaebi News. The Japan-Korea Cyber Naval Battle, however, is freshly stolen from the Joongang Ilbo.
UPDATE: The Rathbone Press takes the Korea Times to task for an article they ran on the Great Dokdo Cyber-War. He writes:
Korea worries a lot about its “brand image.” The World Cup, it was hoped, would change the international community’s impressions of Korea as a land of protests, corruption and collapsing buildings and bridges. No sporting event will change this impression. The change must come from within. When Koreans learn to reign in their emotions and act in a civil way, the “brand image” will change accordingly. If the Korean media and Korean politicians continue to play the victim and condone illegal acts like cyber attacks, well, Koreans should not expect to be seen as being on par with developed nations.
I agree that if Korea is concerned about its brand image (personally, I don’t think they should care, but anyway…), it should probably do something about some of its Netizen behavior - I have no problem with Japanese and Korean Netizens having a little fun with this issue, but cyber-attacks are illegal in most countries (or course, ripping pics off of various websites probably is, too), including Korea (I assume), and at least some of the sites promoting the attacks are mentioned in the Korean-langauge Yonhap piece. Police should be taking note.
UPDATE 2: The Japanese better watch out - another dog eating crack out of them, and I’ll really be pissed:
Korean and Japanese Internet users are swiping at each other, posing such images as the, ??Korea as dog eating country? on Japanese websites, while ??54th anniversary celebrating the day nuclear bomb hit Japan? stamp (below) is posted in Korean cyber space.
UPDATE 3: The Chosun Ilbo’s English edition has a piece on the cyber-war - if its inept use of the English language is similar to that employed on this blog, there’s a reason. Besides, the original Korean version was much cooler, with lots of military terminology being used.
Oh, for Korean-literate readers wanting to keep abreast of all the latest developments in the Cyber-Imjinwaeran (already being called the Kapshinwaeran by someone at Sports Today), Naver has a ton of stuff dedicated to it - enjoy.
14 Comments
What a mess….
Reminds me of that thing last summer with the Spanish and the Moroccans over that god forsaken rock in the Mediterranean.
Hello Marmot Fans,
Those interested in yet another Korea blog can go to my new one, “Kimchipig’s Rant.” Here is the URL http://kimchipig.tblog.com/
I am still kind of new at it so it does not look that great but I guarantee that it will not be dull.
See you!
Kimchioig
Thanks for the plug., Marmot. It’s always a thrill to be quoted.
This country always seems to need a straw dog to kick around (and real ones to eat!). Last week there was a protest that cell phone operators were “excessively” competing for customers. WTF? This week it’s publish stamps with some disputed rocks on them to get the Japanese going, then attack them for reacting. Mr. Marmot, you say Koreans shouldn’t care about their “brand image,” and I agree with you, but then tell their government to forget “hub of Asia” and “free economic zones for foreign corporations” while the people do their damndest to sabotage these ambitions.
Michael - The protests and the cyber-warfare aside, I’m of the opinion that the “hub of Asia” and “free economic zone” ideas will sink or sail depending on issues of much greater importance. I think that if the South Korean government can get its economic policies straight AND the geopolitical situation becomes somewhat more conducive, those plans can (but not necessarily will) work out, regardless of some of the antics pulled by some (and I stress “some”) sectors of the population. That’s not to say that these issues needn’t be worked on - they probably need correcting eventually - but frankly, I’m just not sure how important they are when you look at the big picture. Besides, from what I understand, many of these problems are just as apparent in many of Korea’s biggest competitors.
It is the “big picture” I worry about. I mean, face it, xenophobic, protectionist South Korea trying to be the “business hub” of Asia is like Saudi Arabia vowing to become the nude sunbathing capital of the Indian Ocean or the United States declaring itself a handgun free country. This is an aspiration that is diametrically opposed to everything Korea has stood for.
Mr. Marmot, I have to go with Slim here, it’s a “quality of life” issue and does have an impact on hubs and zones, although to what degree it affects the big picture, as you say, is a socioeconomic unknown. Just to be clear since it’s your blog, I live in Korea and have no interest in just bashing Koreans. I root for the home team, but so often I’ve seem them drop the ball (sorry for extended sports metaphor…).
Michael - sports metaphors are always welcome.
History is obviously not the strong hand of the Koreans who made the nuke stamp. 2004 would be the 59th anniversary.
Not important, as I think the whole issue is pathetic, but thought that I would throw in my 2 cents.
FOREVER FUCKING JAPAN
That stamp was made in 1999.
I think you guys are being a bit unfair. Koreans have always suffered at the hands of Japanese, Chinese, and various foreign powers. It’s not easy for them to forget the years of abuse by Japanese imperialists. In fact, my granfather was a POW (Prisoner Of War)(POW refers to Japanese prisoners of war) and he’s always cursing the Japanese for forcing him to work in the prisoner of war camps. He still all these scars from whips on his back, and he never received compensation. I can understand why Koreans hate foreign powers who look down on them as underdeveloped.
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[...] ilities of Korean Internet users. The site was smack in the middle of the Januarys cyber-Imjinwaeran in which certain J [...]