| Firefighters extinguish a car fire in front of an office building in which the Japanese embassy is located, early Friday. Yonhap |
By Park Si-soo
A Korean man in his 70s died after setting his car on fire in front of a building in Jongno, Seoul, in which the Japanese embassy is located, police said Friday.
He set the car on fire at 3:24 a.m. Friday and the flames were extinguished in 10 minutes. The man, 78, surnamed Kim, suffered serious burns and died at around noon.
The embassy was undamaged.
The car, registered in the name of the man's friend, was loaded with flammable agents such as bottled gas and gasoline.
| The incident took place at 3:24 a.m. Friday and the flames were extinguished in 10 minutes. Yonhap |
| The man, 78, surnamed Kim, died after being rescued. Yonhap |
Police confirmed the man had expressed a grudge against Japan in a phone call with a friend a day before the incident. But they said there was no clear evidence the incident was motivated by the ongoing Seoul-Tokyo trade conflict.
The victim's father-in-law was a victim of forced labor under 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, police said, citing his family members.
Police are investigating.