Kim Rahn is the managing editor of The Korea Times. Since joining the company in 2003, she has covered various beats including the presidential office, Seoul city government, the Bank of Korea and the tourism industry. In 2014, she won the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award for her coverage of the ordeals of migrant women in Korea.
Man sets fire to self in protest of Japan's trade curbs
Police officers set up a police line at a park near the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in central Seoul, Thursday, where a man set fire to himself presumably in protest against Japan's export curbs. / Yonhap
By Kim Rahn
By Kim Rahn
A man set himself on fire in central Seoul, Thursday, presumably in protest of Japan's economic retaliation against Korea's court rulings over wartime forced labor.
According to police and fire authorities, the man, 72, set fire to himself at a park near Sejong Center for the Performing Arts at 8:34 a.m.
Rescue workers arrived there following reports from witnesses that a man was burning, and took him to a nearby hospital. They found inflammables near him.
He sustained serious burns all over his body and is in critical condition, according to police.
The police found a bag there that seemed to belong to him. Along with personal belongings such as a cell phone, there was a note that said “Japan should retract its economic retaliation.” Also found in the bag was a book about the late former sex slave Kim Bok-dong, and leaflets that read “Koreans will fight until Abe apologizes.”
There was no suicide note, but there was a list of contact numbers for his family.
He had neither belonged to any anti-Japan group, nor engaged in such activity, according to police. They are investigating the motives for his action through his family's testimony and CCTV recordings.