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Lee Jae-myung, the chief of South Korea’s principal opposition social gathering, was stabbed within the neck on Tuesday morning, based on the police and live-streamed TV footage.
Mr. Lee, the chief of the liberal Democratic Social gathering, was visiting the southern port metropolis of Busan when an unidentified man stabbed him within the neck with a knifelike weapon, based on the footage. Mr. Lee, 59, had simply completed taking questions from journalists after touring the positioning of a deliberate airport and was making his approach by way of a crowd of reporters and supporters when he was attacked.
The police in Busan mentioned the assailant had been detained, however they didn’t present any particulars about Mr. Lee’s situation or the motives of the attacker. Mr. Lee was bleeding from the neck earlier than being taken away in an ambulance, based on information stories and photographs from the scene.
By early afternoon, there had nonetheless been no official assertion about Mr. Lee’s situation, however native information stories steered that his damage was not life-threatening.
Footage from the assault confirmed the assailant approaching Mr. Lee by way of a bunch of TV digicam operators, apparently posing as one in every of his supporters; he was sporting crown-shaped headgear bearing the phrases “I’m Lee Jae-myung.” Supporters and law enforcement officials overpowered the person after the assault and took him to a police automotive.
Mr. Lee was narrowly defeated by Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative, in South Korea’s final presidential election, in 2022. He has since been subjected to a collection of investigations by state prosecutors on corruption and different prison costs.
He denied all the costs towards him and went on a three-week starvation strike in protest, accusing Mr. Yoon of utilizing the prison justice system to intimidate his political opponents. A courtroom refused to permit prosecutors to arrest Mr. Lee, however he faces the prospect of a collection of trials.
Mr. Yoon expressed “deep concern” about Mr. Lee’s security after the assault on Tuesday, ordering his authorities to hold out a fast investigation and to offer help for the opposition chief’s medical therapy, the president’s workplace mentioned in an announcement.
“The president emphasised that this type of violence shouldn’t be tolerated below any circumstances in our society,” the assertion mentioned.
South Korean politics have turn into more and more polarized lately, and rancor between Mr. Yoon’s supporters and Mr. Lee’s has been rising with the strategy of parliamentary elections in April.
However bodily assaults on politicians have been unusual. In 2006, the conservative politician Park Geun-hye, then an opposition chief, was slashed within the face with a field cutter by a person who had been a vehement critic of her. Ms. Park went on to win the 2012 presidential election.
In 2015, a self-styled nationalist who had expressed anti-American sentiments minimize the face of Mark W. Lippert, then the USA ambassador to South Korea, with a kitchen knife.
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