Man burns self over wartime sex slaves

An elderly South Korean man set himself on fire on Wednesday outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul during a protest over Japan's forced recruitment of sex slaves for military brothels during World War II.

About 1,000 protesters had gathered at the mission to push for reparations ahead of Saturday's 70th anniversary of the end of Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula.

The demonstration was in full swing when the man - identified by local news reports as an 81-year-old activist surnamed Choi - set himself alight from a half-hidden position next to a tree in a grassy area.