SOUTH Korean President Park Geun-hye said on Thursday a knife attack on the U.S. ambassador to Seoul was an “attack on the South Korea-U.S. alliance”, Park’s office quoted her as saying from the United Arab Emirates.
Ambassador Mark Lippert was slashed in the face by a member of a pro-Korean unification group at a public forum held in the South Korean capital. His injuries were not life-threatening and he is in stable condition in hospital, officials said.
U.S. President Barack Obama quickly called Lippert to wish him a speedy recovery, a White House official said.
The assailant was caught by police and identified as 55-year-old Kim Ki-jong. Witnesses and police said he used a small fruit knife in the attack.
In 2010, Kim tried to attack the Japanese ambassador to Seoul by throwing a piece of concrete and was given a suspended jail term, according to police.
Kim was dressed in traditional Korean clothing and shouted that North and South Korea should be reunited just before he attacked Lippert. He also shouted that he opposed “war exercises”, an apparent reference to annual joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began this week.
“The guy comes in wearing traditional Korean brown and tan dress. He yells something, goes up to the ambassador and slashes him in the face,” witness Michael Lammbrau of the Arirang Institute think tank told Reuters.
Kim is a member of the pro-Korean unification group that hosted the event, according to police. He also stages one-man protests against Japan over disputed islands known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese.
“People wrestled the guy to the ground, the ambassador was still in his chair. The ambassador fought him from his seat … There was a trail of blood behind him. He had about a seven inch-long gash on the right side of his face,” Lammbrau said. (Reuters)
Link:http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/asia/2015/03/05/Knife-wielding-attacker-slashes-U-S-ambassador-in-South-Korea.html
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