South Korean Buddhist monk who set himself on fire over 'comfort women' deal dies

A Buddhist monk, who set himself on fire over South Korean sex slaves' deal with Japan, died on Monday night (9 January), a Seoul hospital confirmed. The Seoul National University Hospital said on Tuesday that the unidentified monk was declared dead because of multiple organ failures caused by his burns.

The 64-year-old monk had set himself ablaze on Saturday during a rally in Seoul calling for the dismissal of impeached President Park Geun-hye. He suffered third-degree burns and serious damage to vital organs including heart, kidneys and liver.

The monk was reportedly not happy with the deal between Japan and South Korea, in which Tokyo has agreed to compensate women who were forced into sex slavery during the Second World War.

A handwritten notebook was also found from the scene by police, in which the monk had claimed that Park should be punished for causing a "rebellion".

He also demanded the Seoul-Tokyo agreement signed in 2015 to hammer out a deal on the "comfort women" issue to be invalidated.

"Please don't make my death worthless," he had written in the note calling Park a "traitor" over a 2015 agreement to settle an impasse over Korean women forced to be sex slaves for Japanese troops during World War II in return for an apology from Japan's prime minister and a pledge of millions of dollars, the Associated Press reported.

The December 2015 deal was condemned by many as the issue was very sensitive. The agreement was announced without approval from surviving former sex slaves. At the time of the deal, there were 46 South Korean women living, who were forced to be Japanese sex slaves.

According to the protesters, the severe condition of the "comfort women" represented the abuses of Japan's colonial rule over the Korean peninsula, which they could not forget over a money deal.