Japanese, Korean Patriots Battle in Cyberspace

A cyberwar has erupted between Japanese and Korean super-patriots over what to call the sea that separates their two countries.

According to the Korean daily Chosun Ilbo, Japanese hackers allegedly defaced a Web site belonging to "a group of hypersensitive Korean netizens calling itself the Voluntary Agency Network Korea (VANK)."

The cause was ostensibly VANK's success in persuading the operators of Google Earth, a global three-dimensional mapping application, to change the name of the sea to the "East Sea," its name in Korean, from the "Japan Sea" its name in Japanese and the name most often used worldwide. As of the writing of this article, Google Earth calls it "the East Sea (Sea of Japan.)."

The Chosun Ilbo said the hackers, whom it said were thought to be Japanese, had swamped VANK's Web message board, demanding to know why Google changed the name, and claiming that Google had lost its credibility since it had capitulated to Korean nationalists.

According to the Korean report, VANK had been profiled last week in several Japanese newspapers, including The Asahi Shimbun, and that subsequently on Saturday, Japanese visitors flooded the site, paralyzing it. The original Japanese reports could not be immediately located.

Accompanying its article, the Chosun Ilbo published a picture of a map inscribed with the following message in Japanese: "The battle for justice has just begun!" It also printed a cartoon-like graphic, supposedly uploaded by Japanese hackers, mocking Korean history. As of early morning Tuesday, Korea time, there appeared to be little damage to VANK's English language site, although the message board was still not working.

On its Web site, VANK writes that it sees the East Sea/Sea of Japan naming issue as a stand-in for the way that Korean history has been distorted by its larger neighbors Japan and China. VANK claims to be an all-volunteer organization with 15,000 members. It aims to improve Korea's image abroad by recruiting 200,000 "cyber diplomats" who will promote Korea directly to foreigners.