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| Firefighters rescue a man who set fire to his car in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, Friday. / Yonhap |
By Kang Seung-woo
A man in his 70s died Friday after setting fire to his car in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul in what seemed to be a protest against Tokyo's rejection of Seoul's ruling on wartime forced labor.
According to the Jongno Police Station, the man surnamed Kim parked his car on the sidewalk in front of the building entrance and set fire to the inside of the vehicle around 3:24 a.m. Flammable materials including butane gas were found inside the car.
Although the fire was put out within 10 minutes, the man suffered severe burns to his entire body and was taken to a nearby hospital. At the time, he was breathing but had difficulty communicating. He passed away at 12:57 p.m., according to the police.
After trying to find the exact reason he set the car on fire through witness accounts and CCTV images captured nearby, police found he had borrowed the car from his acquaintance.
He also spoke to the acquaintance by phone, saying he would start the fire because of his ill feelings toward Japan.
The police also said Kim's father-in-law was a victim of Japan's forced labor during World War II, mobilized to work in Japanese factories without pay.
The incident occurred three hours after the Japan-set deadline for Korea to respond to its June 19 request to form a panel consisting of three third-country members on the issue. The Moon Jae-in administration rejected the demand.
Last year, the Supreme Court ordered Japanese firms to compensate the surviving victims, after which the Japanese government announced, July 1, it would tighten controls on three key materials that Korean companies need to make semiconductors and chips.
In response, Koreans have launched a massive campaign to boycott Japanese products and travel to Japan.
