SEOUL: South Korea’s opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in the neck during a visit to the southern city of Busan on Tuesday (Jan 2) and was airlifted to a university hospital for treatment, party and fire officials said.
Lee, who narrowly lost the 2022 presidential election, was attacked by an unidentified man while touring the site of a proposed airport, the officials told Reuters.
The attack left him with a gash of about 1cm on his neck, YTN television reported. Hospital officials did not immediately confirm the details of his injury.
Lee was airlifted by a fire department helicopter to the Pusan National University Hospital and is being treated in the emergency room, a hospital official and a fire department official told Reuters.
The assailant appeared to be a man in his 50s or 60s, who wore a paper crown with Lee’s name on it, news photographs showed.
The man approached and asked for an autograph as Lee spoke among a throng of supporters and reporters, then lunged forward and attacked him, video footage showed.
Jin Jeong-hwa, a Lee supporter who was at the scene livestreaming the event, told Reuters there were two dozen police officers at the scene.
The assailant was quickly subdued by men that included police officers, the footage showed.
He was refusing to answer police questions about his motives, daily Busan Ilbo reported.
Video clips on YTN television and another posted on the social media platform X showed the attack, with a man lunging at Lee with his arm stretched out. Lee grimaced and collapsed to the ground.
News photographs showed the 59-year-old lying on the ground with his eyes closed and other people pressing a handkerchief against the side of his neck.
PRESIDENT CONDEMNS ATTACK
President Yoon Suk Yeol condemned the attack, saying it was an unacceptable act, his office said. He expressed deep concern for Lee and instructed best care be given so he can make a speedy recovery, his office said.
His spokesperson Kim Soo-kyung said: “Yoon emphasised our society should never tolerate this kind of act of violence under any circumstances.”
Previously governor of Gyeonggi province, Lee narrowly lost to conservative Yoon, a former chief prosecutor, in the 2022 presidential election.
Source: CNA
