S. Korean man sets himself on fire in anti-Japan rally

“It appears he tried to kill himself by setting himself on fire, given a drink bottle that he had smells of gasoline”, a firefighter said.

The rally included three of the 47 known surviving Korean “comfort women” – as they were called by Japan during the war – who were used to fulfil the sexual needs of troops.

An elderly South Korean man has set himself on fire outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul at a rally protesting the use of “comfort women” by occupying Japanese forces during World War II.

Wednesday’s protest had drawn close to 1,000 protestors to the embassy ahead of Saturday’s 70th anniversary of the end of Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean peninsula.

The man was identified as Choi Hyun-yeol by a civic group with which he was affiliated.

Choi was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.

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.

Photos from the scene showed the 81-year-old man, whose name has not been released, engulfed in flames while seated, his hands clasped in front of his face.

Other protesters at the weekly rally, including some former comfort women, recognised Mr Choi as an occasional attendee and an activist for the rights of all kinds of Koreans enslaved during the Japanese occupation and not just sex slaves.

China’s devaluation of its currency is expected to have a positive impact on the South Korean economy if it leads to increased exports for Beijing, Seoul’s finance minister said Wednesday.

South Korea’s Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se again urged Abe Wednesday to unambiguously uphold apologies made by past Japanese Cabinets.

Such sentiment has strengthened in recent years over what South Koreans feel as Tokyo’s attempts to downplay its wartime conduct and also its territorial claims over a set of small islets occupied by South Korea.

Protests sometimes turn violent.