SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean opposition chief Lee Jae-myung is in steady situation after being assaulted by a knife-wielding attacker throughout a go to to the nation’s second-largest metropolis, Busan, Tuesday morning.
There is, as but, minimal information accessible on his attacker, a person in his 60s surnamed Kim. The assailant has refused to disclose his motive or his affiliation – if any.
While South Korea prides itself on its lack of avenue crime, and terrorist assaults have been unknown for the reason that Eighties, assaults on public figures by “lone wolf” assailants wielding hand-held weapons usually are not unusual.
Following this newest incident, the nationwide police chief has vowed to improve shut safety.
Shock assault in Busan
Mr. Lee, 59, who heads the left-leaning Democratic Party of Korea, was in stumping mode because the political group gears up for April parliamentary elections. At 10:27 a.m., he was assaulted by a person with a knife whereas visiting the location of a brand new airport within the port metropolis of Busan within the southeast.
TV footage confirmed the attacker approaching Mr. Lee by means of a crowd of supporters, reporters and police, apparently to acquire an autograph, earlier than lunging ahead. In a melee, he was swiftly wrestled to the bottom and restrained.
Footage confirmed Mr. Lee, eyes tightly shut, mendacity on his again as members of his entourage pressed a handkerchief to the bloody wound on the facet of his neck.
After first support was given in Busan and it was clear his life was not at risk, Mr. Lee was airlifted to the main Seoul National University Hospital in Seoul.
His situation is reportedly steady.
The attacker was instantly arrested and is now in police custody. Police say his title is Kim — Korea’s most typical surname — and he was born in 1957 and wielded an 18-centimeter (or 7-inch) knife.
Video footage discovered by native media exhibits that he tried, however failed, to method Mr. Lee throughout a previous go to to Busan final month.
The attacker is anticipated to be charged with tried homicide.
President Yoon Suk Yeol expressed concern for Mr. Lee’s situation, stating that such violence is insupportable beneath any circumstance.
Mr. Lee, a populist firebrand who misplaced 2022’s presidential election to the conservative Mr. Yoon by simply 0.7 p.c of the vote, has proved to be politically indestructible.
He has confronted fixed police and judicial probes into alleged bribery carried out throughout his earlier profession as a significant of the town of Seongnam. Though a number of of his associates have dedicated suicide, not one of the fees have caught to Mr. Lee, who calls the probes “a political conspiracy.”
Last September, he seemed doomed when a bipartisan group together with 21 members of his personal social gathering voted to strip him of his parliamentary immunity from prosecution. Yet Mr. Lee got here out on prime when judges refused to situation an arrest warrant.
In April’s parliamentary plebiscite, Mr. Lee’s social gathering will search to develop its present majority within the National Assembly. If they’re profitable, Mr. Yoon, who has suffered from low approval rankings since being elected, shall be a “lame duck” simply midway by means of his single, five-year time period.
Today’s lone wolves, yesterday’s terrorists
No home extremist teams with territorial, spiritual or political grievances are identified to be energetic, and firearms legal guidelines in South Korea are stringent.
Neither situation has prevented a sequence of assaults on public figures on either side of the political spectrum by lone wolves wielding hand-held weapons.
In 2022, Mr. Lee’s predecessor as head of the DP, Song Young-gil, was attacked at a public occasion by an assailant with a hammer. Mr. Song escaped with a concussion. His attacker was a pro-reunification YouTuber and activist indignant at joint navy drills.
In 2015, U.S. Ambassador to Korea Mark Lippert was assaulted with a knife whereas attending a breakfast occasion, struggling a facial wound that required cosmetic surgery. His attacker was a violent nationalist who had beforehand assaulted Japan’s ambassador.
In 2006, conservative politician Park Geun-hyu, who turned president in 2013, was slashed within the face with a knife in a wound that additionally wanted beauty surgical procedure. Her attacker, who had an extended legal report, was reportedly indignant at his earlier convictions.
In democratic South Korea, politicians are compelled to be among the many public.
“I know of politicians who ask for their close protection not to be too hard on the public, as they want more contact,” stated Yang Sung-mook, who beforehand labored as a global relations adviser for the Democratic Party.
“It is not the case for important political figures like the leader of the opposition, but presidents are very well secured,” he added.
Tight presidential safety is important, given the deadliness of previous political violence.
Ms. Park’s late mom, the spouse of then-President Park Chung-hee, was assassinated by a person affiliated with North Korea in 1974. In 1979, Mr. Park himself – a divisive determine who dominated with an iron fist however dragged Korea out of millennia of poverty – was shot useless by his personal intelligence chief, although the latter’s motives stay shadowy to today.
Subsequent North Korean terrorism was much less discriminate.
In 1983, North Korea bombed South Korea’s cupboard throughout a go to to Myanmar, killing 21. In 1986, a bomb at Seoul’s Kimpo Airport killed 5. And in 1987, brokers bombed a South Korean airliner, killing all 115 aboard.
These terrorist atrocities tailed off after South Korean democratized in 1987.
Recent political violence has additionally raised its head in neighboring Japan, a rustic equally famous for secure streets.
In 2022, Japan’s longest-serving premier, Shinzo Abe, was shot useless by an attacker utilizing a home made firearm. The killer was indignant at Mr. Abe’s affiliations with the Unification Church, a motive that led to a political crackdown on the church by the ruling social gathering.
And in April this yr, a person reportedly annoyed by his failed political ambitions tried to kill Prime Minister Fumio Kishida with a pipe bomb. Mr. Kishida escaped with out harm.
