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.