The United States ambassador to South Korea, Mark Lippert has had his face slashed by a knife-wielding attacker in the South Korean capital, Seoul.
The 42-year-old envoy was giving a breakfast speech in Seoul when the attack took place. He received an 11cm wound to the right of his face requiring 80 stitches and a cut to his left arm which ruptured a tendon and caused nerve damage.
While Lippert was in surgery for more than two hours, his injuries were however not life-threateing.
Lippert’s attacker has been identified as 55-year-old Kim Ki-Jong, who has a previous conviction for assaulting the Japanese ambassador to Seoul in 2010. Ki-Jong reportedly shouted for unification of the divided peninsula as he slashed Lippert’s face shouting:
“I carried out an act of terror”
Meanwhile, a State Department spokeswoman said the department strongly condemned the act of violence while Police Chief Yoon Myung-Soon said the attacker had been detained as investigations to the cause of the attack and other circumstances were being investigated.
In the meantime, President Barack Obama has since placed a call to Lippert who is Obama’s long-time adviser to and former US assistant secretary of defense for Asian affairs, wishing him swift recovery.
South and North Korea have been divided since the 1950-53 Korean War and are still technically at war because the fighting ended in a truce.
The US and South Korea launched annual joint military exercises this week leading to heightened tensions with the communist North, a move that may have spurred the attack.
