US Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert underwent two-and-a-half hours of surgery after he was slashed in the face by a Korean nationalist in an attack at a breakfast forum in Seoul yesterday to discuss Korean reunification.
Lippert, 42, was bleeding from deep wounds to his face and wrist, but was able to walk after the attack. Doctors said his condition was stable after “very successful” surgery that required 80 stitches in his face.
The assailant was caught and identified by police as 55-year-old Kim Ki-jong.
Photo: EPA
In 2010, Kim tried to attack the Japanese ambassador to South Korea by throwing a piece of concrete and was given a suspended jail term, according to police.
The attack on Lippert was a protest against joint military exercises by South Korean and US troops, which Kim said interfered with reconciliation between North and South Korea, according to police following an interrogation.
Witnesses and police said Kim used a small fruit knife in the attack, which took place in a government arts center across the street from the heavily guarded US embassy on the South Korean capital’s main ceremonial thoroughfare.
Photo: Reuters
“We strongly condemn this act of violence,” US Department of State spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
US President Barack Obama called Lippert to wish him a speedy recovery, a White House official said.
The assailant 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,” a reference to the annual joint US-South Korean military drills that began this week.
“I carried out an act of terror,” Kim shouted as he was pinned to the floor by people at the event.
Kim said while in police custody he had acted alone.
“The guy comes in... He yells something, goes up to the ambassador and slashes him in the face,” Michael Lammbrau of the Arirang Institute think tank said.
“The ambassador fought him from his seat... There was a trail of blood behind him,” Lammbrau said.
Doctors at Yonsei University’s Severance Hospital said they treated Lippert for an 11cm gash on the right side of his face and a puncture wound on his left wrist, causing nerve damage that was repaired.
He will be hospitalized for three or four days, they said.
“Doing well & in great spirits!,” Lippert tweeted after his surgery.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency described the attack as “deserved punishment for the warmongering United States,” calling it “the knife of justice” that it said reflected the anger of South Koreans opposed to the joint military exercises.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique