Protestor rams truck into Japanese embassy

The bronze statue of a “comfort woman,” a sex slave for Japanese troops during World War II, stands in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul with police barricading the gate, Monday. The gate was pushed back about 1 meter after a 62-year-old man rammed his 1-ton truck into it to protest against a rightwing Japanese activist. (Photo : The Korea Times/Choi Heung-soo)

Police apprehended a man in his 60s for crashing his truck into the main gate of the Japanese Embassy in central Seoul, early Monday.

According to police, the 61-year-old driver, surnamed Kim, smashed his 1 ton truck into the embassy’s main gate at 4:59 a.m.

Policemen on guard in front of the embassy immediately took him into custody, adding that no one was hurt and property damage was limited.

“There were no casualties but the front gate of the embassy had been pushed back about 1 meter,” said a police officer.

Kim has attached a sign to his truck that read, “Dokdo is Korean territory,” referring to Korea’s easternmost islets.

Police are trying to find the exact reason behind Kim’s actions but refused to give any further details.

An investigator quoted Kim as saying that he rammed his truck into the embassy gate in protest against a Japanese rightwing extremist who had tied a stake to a statue of a “comfort woman” in front of the embassy.

The term “comfort woman” refers to those forced to work as sex slaves for frontline Japanese troops during World War II.

Nobuyuki Suzuki, a Japanese right-wing activist placed the 90-centimeter-long stake on the statue on June 19, provoking public anger here. The stake had a written claim that the Dokdo islets are part of Japan.

In a video that Suzuki had taken while attaching the stake, the 47-year-old demanded the statue be removed.

A similar incident occurred at the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum on June 18, where a stake had been placed at the museum exhibiting the history of comfort women.

Following the incidents, surviving comfort women filed a complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office against Suzuki for defamation last week. <The Korea Times/Kim Bo-eun>

news@theasian.asia