A South Korean Buddhist monk is in critical condition after setting himself on fire to protest the country’s settlement with Japan on compensation for wartime “comfort women,” officials said yesterday.
The 64-year-old monk suffered third-degree burns across his body and serious damage to vital organs. He is unconscious and unable to breathe on his own, said an official from the Seoul National University Hospital, who did not want to be named, citing office rules.
The man set himself ablaze late on Saturday during a large rally in Seoul calling for the ouster of impeached South Korean President Park Geun-hye, police said.
In his notebook, the man called Park a “traitor” over her government’s 2015 agreement with Japan that sought to settle a long-standing row over South Korean women who were forced to become comfort women by Japan’s World War II military, police said.
Under the agreement, Japan pledged to fund a Seoul-based foundation that was set up to help support the victims. South Korea, in exchange, vowed to refrain from criticizing Japan over the issue and try to resolve a Japanese grievance over a bronze statue representing wartime sex slaves in front of its embassy in Seoul.
The agreement has so far come short of bringing closure to the emotional issue. The deal continues to be criticized in South Korea because it was reached without approval from victims, and students have been holding sit-in protests next to the Seoul statue for more than a year over fears that the government might try to remove it.
Self-immolation is not unheard of as a means of protest in South Korea, and was particularly common during the pro-democracy movement of the 1980s and early 1990s, when a number of activists set themselves on fire during public demonstrations.
Park is accused of colluding with a confidante, Choi Soon-sil, to coerce top local firms to “donate” tens of millions of dollars to nonprofit foundations which Choi then used as her personal cash machines.
The president is also accused of letting Choi — the daughter of a shady religious figure who was also close to Park for decades — meddle in state affairs including the nomination of top officials.
Both Park and Choi — who is currently awaiting trial — have denied any wrongdoing.
Additional reporting by AFP
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