Let me take the time to get our international readers and uninformed Korean residents up to speed. You see, (some) Koreans have a tendency to go to extremes in defending against what they perceive to be slights against their national...er, what's the word?...image, I guess. And there is nothing that fires 'em up more than the Liancourt Rocks, to use the neutral appellation. You can read about their dispute with the evil Japanese here, and also look at lots of pretty pictures, which is of course much better than reading.
The article was published in the Boston Herald and what I really loved about reading it were the comments, from presumably Korea-ignorant Bostonites, about how crazy all the Korean protesters are. It comforts me to know that impartial observers can validate my own perceptions here inside the bubble. Let me quote Baffled:
"Wait. What? Some random citizens chopped off their fingers to protest an international debate over ownership of these islands? Like, how the heck is that a "protest"? I mean, I could understand donating money to the cause, or joining the military, or protesting outside the Japanese embassy, or writing letters to world leaders or newspapers or whatever.
But decapitating birds and lopping off your own body parts? That's just a major wtf. I mean...how does that convince anyone of, well, anything? "Hey, you Japanese! Yeah, you guys! You better give up those islands or else I'm going to chop my leg off next! That will teach you not to mess with us!"
If I was a Japanese strategist I'd set up bingo games with my co-bureaucrats, timed with Japanese press releases, as to what body part we could induce people to chop off. "Left big toe? Bingo!""
