Media Wire Express Correspondent
South Korea’s opposition leader, Lee Jae-Myung has been stabbed in the neck during a visit to the city of Busan.
The brazen daytime attack shocked the nation and prompted condemnation from political parties and politicians, including current President Yoon Suk Yeol. Mr Lee, who narrowly lost the 2022 presidential election, sustained a 1cm laceration on the left side of his neck, reports said.
The 66-year-old man who attacked him said he had intended to kill Mr Lee. The assailant used an 18-cm knife , its blade is 13 cm long which he purchased online. He displayed a pro Lee-slogan on the ground while police wrestled him for his arrest. His motives for intending to kill is however not clear .
The 59-year-old Lee was “walking to his car talking to reporters when the attacker who pretended to be a supporter asked for his autograph. The assailant , a man in his 60s ,
Reports say , the wound was not life threatening although Lee was captured bleeding but conscious as he was rushed to a local university hospital, before being flown to the capital Seoul for surgery, according to an official from his party.
“This is an act of terror against Lee and a serious threat to democracy that should never occur under any circumstances,” Kwon Chil-seung, an MP from Lee’s Democratic Party, told reporters outside the hospital in Busan.
Several high-profile South Korean politicians have been attacked in public in the past. An elderly man hit Song Young-gil, who led the Democratic Party before Lee, in the head with a blunt object in 2022. In 2006, Park Geun-hye, then the leader of the conservative party who later became president, was assaulted with a knife at a rally. The attack left a scar on her face.
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