In Seoul, man lights himself on fire in front of Japan embassy amid row over forced wartime labour
- Police said the 78-year-old man ignited a fire inside his car parked in front of the embassy building, and later died from his injuries
- South Korea and Japan are locked in a dispute over compensation for forced labourers during the second world war and Tokyo’s controls on hi-tech exports
The diplomatic row between South Korea and Japan hit new lows on Friday with a man burning himself alive in protests against the wartime dispute, and Tokyo vowing additional retaliatory measures against its East Asian neighbour.
South Korean police said a 78-year-old man surnamed Kim on Friday morning set himself on fire in his car outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul. Police later confirmed he died in hospital from his injuries.
Police said Kim had phoned an acquaintance earlier to say he planned to self-immolate to express his antipathy toward Japan.
The neighbouring countries are quarrelling over South Korean court decisions ordering Japanese companies to compensate victims of forced labour during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.
Kim’s family told investigators his father-in-law had been conscripted as a forced labourer when the Korean Peninsula was under Japan’s colonial rule from 1910-45, according to a police statement.
