101.   The announcement coincided with a series of protests by hundreds of angry South Koreans who burned Japanese flags and tried to march into the Japanese embassy here.

102.   The crowd, escorted by a large number of police apparently expecting a bigger demonstration, cheered loudly as the Japanese military flag was burned.

103.   The demonstrators torched a huge Japanese flag scribbled with slogans, demanding that Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto raise a government fund for Korean war victims.

104.   The dispute was triggered by a right-wing Japanese group which erected a light house and a Japanese flag on the island group.

105.   The issue of the Diaoyu islands flared up recently after Japanese nationalists put up a Japanese flag and two memorials on one island in August.