Elderly man sets himself on fire outside Japanese embassy in Seoul in ‘comfort women’ protest

An elderly South Korean man set himself on fire outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul during a protest over Japan’s forced recruitment of sex slaves for military brothels during the second world war.

Around 1,000 protesters had gathered at the mission to push for reparations ahead of Saturday’s 70th anniversary of the end of Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean peninsula.

The demonstration was in full swing, when the man – identified by local news reports as an 81-year-old activist, surnamed Choi – set himself alight from a half-hidden position next to a tree on a grass verge.

Television news footage showed other protesters reacting immediately, using a blanket and bottled water in a desperate effort to douse the flames before the emergency services arrived.

Firefighters eventually removed the man by stretcher to an ambulance, which rushed him to hospital.

Yonhap cited medical staff as saying he had suffered third-degree burns to most of his body, but was still conscious and not believed to be in a life-threatening condition.

Protests on the so-called “comfort women” issue are held once a month outside the embassy, but Wednesday’s event was much larger than usual due to the looming anniversary, and three of the 47 surviving South Korean comfort women took part.