U.S. ambassador gets 80 stitches after knife attack

 

Reuters

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert was slashed in the face on Thursday.

By

ALASTAIRGALE

JEYUPS. KWAAK

SEOUL — The U.S. ambassador to South Korean was recovering late Thursday after he was attacked here by a nationalist in a rare spasm of anti-American violence that runs contrary to mainstream support in this country for close ties between Seoul and Washington.

The activist slashed the ambassador, Mark Lippert, with a 10-inch kitchen knife as the envoy was seated, preparing to give a Thursday morning breakfast address about the U.S.-South Korean alliance. The attacker, a bearded man dressed in a traditional Korean outfit, screamed calls for reunification between North and South Korea.

Lippert sustained a deep gash across his right cheek, for which he received morethan 80 stitches, and cuts on his left arm and fingers, doctors said. He will remain hospitalized for a few days, they said.

The attacker, identified by police as 55-year-old Kim Ki-jong, was pinned to the floor by officials as Lippert was rushed for treatment.

Both South Korea and the U.S. quickly condemned the attack, with PRESIDENT PARK Geun-hye calling it “an attack on the South Korea-U.S. alliance.”

Reuters

Security personnel detain Kim Ki-jong after the attack on Mark Lippert.

South Korean authorities haven’t identified a motive or formally charged Kim. But when he briefly emerged from the police station, he shouted “I oppose war drills,” an apparent reference to military exercises being held by South Korea and the U.S.

Local media reported that Kim said he had been planning the attack on Lippert for about 10 days.

“I (attacked the ambassador) because I didn’t like how a moron who’s barely in his 40s was going to take on our inter-Korean policy,” he said, according to Yonhap News.