A 72-year-old South Korean man was in critical condition after setting himself ablaze in downtown Seoul yesterday, apparently to express his anger toward Japan amid worsening tensions between countries over trade and wartime history, a police official said. An official from Seoul's Jongno Police Station said the man was being treated at a Seoul hospital for burns over his entire body. The incident came a day before the Japanese government was widely expected to remove South Korea from a 27-country “whitelist” receiving preferential treatment in trade, which if carried out is likely to aggravate the dispute that sank bilateral relations to its lowest point in decades.