South Korea turns down Japanese extradition request over Chinese arsonist

A South Korean court has turned down a Japanese extradition request for a Chinese national who served a 10-month jail sentence for an arson attack on the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

The court said Liu Qiang, 38, should now be sent home to China.

Liu was arrested in January last year for hurling petrol bombs at the Japanese mission which left burn marks on the outer wall but caused no other damage.

Tokyo had sought his extradition in connection with a separate arson attack, that also caused minor damage, at the Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo in December 2011.

The shrine in Tokyo is dedicated to 2.5 million Japanese killed in wars, including key war criminals, and is often seen as a symbol of the country's wartime aggression.

Liu told investigators that he attacked the Japanese embassy because he was angry at Tokyo's refusal to deal with the issue of "comfort women" forced to work in Japanese military brothels in the second world war.