Seoul - The US ambassador to South Korea, Mark Lippert, was slashed on his face and arm by a blade-wielding assailant shouting anti-war slogans in an attack in Seoul on Thursday, police and reports said.
The United States strongly condemned the “act of violence” which left the ambassador bleeding profusely as he was rushed to hospital, and said that President Barack Obama had spoken with him.
“The president called (Lippert) to tell him that he and his wife Robyn are in his thoughts and prayers, and to wish him the very best for a speedy recovery,” said National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan.
Witnesses said a man with a blade concealed in his right hand attacked Lippert as he was attending a breakfast function at the Sejong Cultural Institute in central Seoul.
Video footage in the immediate aftermath of the attack showed the ambassador being escorted out of the building holding one hand to his bleeding right cheek, and his other hand smeared with blood with an apparent wound to the wrist.
Lippert, 42, was bundled into a police car and rushed to hospital, where a US embassy spokesman said he was in a “stable” condition.
State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said that Lippert's injuries were not life-threatening.
“We can confirm that (Lippert) was assaulted Thursday morning in Seoul while giving a speech. We strongly condemn this act of violence,” she said.
Police identified the attacker as Kim Ki-jong, 55, and said he had a previous conviction for hurling a stone at the then Japanese ambassador to Seoul in 2010.
“We have detained him and are investigating the cause of the attack and other circumstances,” said district police chief Yoon Myung-soon.
Yoon said Kim had slashed the ambassador with a 25cm paring knife.
A spokesman for the Korea Council for Reconciliation and Co-operation, which hosted the breakfast function, apologised for the lack of security at the event.
“This man suddenly jumped out of the audience seat when the breakfast was about to start at the table,” the spokesman said.
“Other people tried to stop him but the situation unfolded too quickly. The ambassador was injured on the face and sent to hospital,” he added.
Security staff and police officers were later seen tackling the assailant, who was dressed in traditional Korean clothes and shouting slogans against joint US-South Korea military exercises.
The annual military drills kicked off earlier this week, triggering a surge in tensions with North Korea.
Nearly 30 000 US troops are permanently stationed in South Korea and the US would assume operational command in the event of an armed conflict with the North.
According to the Yonhap news agency, Kim heads a left-wing nationalist organisation that regularly organises protests against Japanese territorial claims to a group of small islands controlled by South Korea.
Lippert, a former US assistant secretary of defence for Asian affairs, took up his post in South Korea in October last year.
He was part of Obama's inner circle during the then senator's rise to the White House, and took on senior roles in national security and defence after the 2008 presidential campaign.
AFP