South Korea opposition chief stabbed in neck, recovering after surgery

According to officials, a guy who had asked for South Korean opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung’s autograph came at him with a knife, stabbing him in the neck on Tuesday.

Party spokesperson Kwon Chil-seung informed reporters that Lee,59, was taken to the hospital and had surgery to repair a significant blood artery. He was later recovering and conscious in a critical care unit.

Weeks before an April parliamentary election, Kwon denounced the incident as “political terror.”

While visiting the location of a proposed new airport and addressing supporters and media, Lee—who is now on trial for bribery accusations that he denies—was attacked in the southern city of Busan. Lee narrowly lost the 2022 presidential election.

According to the video, the suspect approached Lee, asked for a signature, and then stabbed him in the neck while donning a paper crown with his name on it.

With a grimace, Lee stumbled back into the crowd and fell to the ground. In photos, he was lying on the ground with a handkerchief pressed to his neck and his eyes closed and bleeding.

After getting emergency care in Busan, Lee was airlifted to Seoul, the capital, where he underwent a two-hour surgery at Seoul National University Hospital.

The camera footage indicated that party leaders and police personnel rapidly subdued the attacker.

In the 2022 election, Yoon, a former chief prosecutor and conservative, defeated Lee, a former governor of Gyeonggi province. Since August 2022, he has served as the head of the main opposition party.

Although he is accused of bribery related to a development project during his tenure as mayor of Seongnam, which is close to Seoul, Lee maintains his innocence.

Despite stringent laws prohibiting the ownership of firearms, political violence has a history in South Korea. Typically, political leaders are not closely guarded.

In 2022, an attacker struck Song Young-gil, Lee’s predecessor, in the head with a blunt object.

Then, in 2006, Park Geun-hye, the head of the conservative opposition party and eventual president, suffered a facial slash. During a drunken private dinner in 1979, Park Chung-hee, her father and 16-year president, was shot and killed by his espionage chief.

(With agency inputs)