Six South Korean youths were taken into police custody on Monday after staging a protest performance over Japan's export restrictions inside the Japanese Consulate in central Busan, police said.

The six, who are presumed to be college students, were all detained at around 2:35 p.m. while displaying placards condemning Japan's export curbs for South Korea and shouting slogans, such as "Japan must apologize," they said.



The protesters dashed out of the consulate's library before holding their protest performances in its yard, police said, noting they entered the Japanese mission in the morning through due procedures.

Police are investigating the protesters on charges of trespassing on the consulate premises.

At the time of their protest, a coalition of 30 civic groups in the southern port city was holding a joint news conference in front of the consulate's rear gate to condemn Japan for its export restrictions against South Korea and call for a boycott of Japanese products.

Amid growing anti-Japanese sentiment here, the Japanese Embassy in Seoul is considering requesting the South Korean government to tighten security around its facilities. Japan has the embassy in Seoul and two consulates, in Busan and on the southern resort island of Jeju.

"Due to a recent series of incidents, (we) are considering ways to make a request to further tighten security," an embassy official said.

Japan began applying the export curbs on South Korea for three key materials needed for the production of chips and displays on July 4 in apparent response to Seoul's handling of a wartime forced labor issue. Tokyo is pushing to remove South Korea from a list of trusted buyers, which could negatively affect the supply of other key materials needed for making smartphones, televisions and other industrial materials. (Yonhap)