US ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert covering a wound to his face as he leaves the Sejong Cultural Institute in Seoul after he was injured in an attack by an armed assailant.
Reuters/Seoul
US ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert was slashed in the face by a Korean nationalist but was not seriously hurt during an attack at a breakfast forum held in the capital on Thursday to discuss Korean reunification, police and witnesses said.
Lippert, 42, was bleeding from a facial wound but was walking after the attack as he was taken to the hospital. He was later reported to be in stable condition and officials in Washington said his injuries were not life-threatening.
The assailant was caught by police and identified as 55-year-old Kim Ki-jong. 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.
Witnesses and police said Kim used a small fruit knife in the attack, which took place inside a large government arts centre across the street from the heavily guarded US embassy on Seoul's main ceremonial thoroughfare.
"We strongly condemn this act of violence," US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
US President Barack Obama quickly called Lippert to wish him a speedy recovery, a White House official said.
Korean clothing
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 annual joint US-South Korean military exercises that began this week.
"I carried out an act of terror," Kim shouted as he was pinned to the floor by event attendees.
Kim said while in police custody he had acted alone. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that Kim also said he was part of a group that had cut and burned a US flag on the embassy grounds in Seoul in 1985.
Kim is a member of the pro-Korean unification group that hosted the event, police said. He also stages one-man protests against Japan over disputed islands known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese.
"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.
'Wrestled to the ground'
Police were at the venue as part of routine operations but not at the request of the US embassy or the organiser, a police official said.
"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.
Lammbrau said the man shouted about Korean independence while he was being restrained. "It sounded like he was anti-American, anti-imperialist, that kind of stuff."
South Korean President Park Geun-hye, speaking in the United Arab Emirates, called it an "attack on the South Korea-US alliance."
Known for his open, informal style, Lippert is active on Twitter and can often be seen walking his basset hound, Grigsby, in Seoul. His wife recently gave birth to a son, who was given a Korean middle name.
