What's up with the peace sign or "V" in all the photos?

Many are curious why Koreans or Asians in general throw the peace sign or "V" up in their photos. There are a few different theories of why this is so common.

1. The "V" simply means "smile" and "overly happy" and "Hello there". The logic behind it: victory leads to peace, which leads to happiness.

2. From yahoo answers: "The origin of the V sign—either a peace sign or a Winston Churchill-style victory symbol, depending on which story you go with—in Japanese culture, many of which can be found on the Wikipedia page on the subject. The most widely disseminated seems to be that when U.S. figure skater Janet Lynn fell during the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, she kept smiling and flashed the peace sign even while ass-down on the ice, making her an overnight sensation in Japan. Copycats followed her lead.
There's a lot of pedantic reasoning floating around rationalizing the sign's popularity in photographs—it allows expressiveness in a notoriously reserved culture; it serves as a non-verbal "cheese," indicating readiness to be photographed; and, most oddly, that it draws attention away from the subjects' small eyes—but there seems to be a general consensus on one thing: It's deeply ingrained in the culture."

3. "There are two schools of thought on this. 1) The ubiquitous use of the "peace" sign in pictures has become as common as smiling because Koreans are inherently insecure about themselves. Its the herd mentality. Thats what you HAVE to do or the Picture Police will make everybody laugh at you. i.e. "Look at that!!! Ji Young didn't do the peace sign!!! Did she fail picture taking class or what?? bwa hahaha" 2) Its not the peace sign but the chopsticks sign. Koreans are notoriously insecure and are demonstrating in pictures that "We have friends and are going to eat soon!". The miracle on the Han river has seem the GDP per cap pita of South Korea go from 100 to almost 20,000. Unheard of but it was accomplished in one generation. Many Koreans still retain the fear of poverty and the memory of looking on at society's elite always eating with chopsticks in hand. The "Peace" sign is actually the "Chopsticks" sign. I have money, I'm going to eat soon too."

Source(s):
The Peace Sign: The Study of Koreans and their Peace sign by Audrey Kim, Bantom Publishing 2004

So there you have it folks. :) peace!