South Korean monk dies after setting himself ablaze over Japan sex slave deal

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The injured Buddhist monk who set himself on fire is put into an ambulance in Seoul, South Korea. He has since died of his injuries. Photo: AP

Published: 2:23pm, 10 Jan 2017Updated: 2:23pm, 10 Jan 2017

A South Korean Buddhist monk has died days after he set himself on fire to protest the country’s deal with Japan on former Korean sex slaves, a Seoul hospital said Tuesday.

The monk, 64, set himself ablaze Saturday during rallies against impeached President Park Geun-hye. In his notebook found at the scene, he criticised Park’s 2015 agreement to settle an impasse over Korean women forced to be sex slaves for Japanese troops during the second world war in return for an apology from Japan’s prime minister and a pledge of millions of dollars.

The monk was pronounced dead Monday night of multiple organ failures caused by his burns, according to the Seoul National University Hospital.

Disputes over sex slaves are a legacy of Japan’s 1910-45 colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula. Many in both North and South Korea, divided at the end of the Japanese rule, still harbour bitter resentment against the Japanese period.

A statue in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul that symbolises women forced into wartime Japanese military brothels . Photo: AP

Park’s Japan deal prompted criticism because it was announced without approval from surviving former sex slaves. Under the agreement that both countries described as “final and irreversible” at the time of its singing, Japan promised to fund a Seoul-based foundation aimed at supporting the victims.