News / Foreign Policy

North Korea hails 'knife attack of justice' on US envoy to South Korea

Thursday, 05 March 2015 4:47 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 05 March 2015 5:50 PM ]

US ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert was slashed on his face and arm by a blade-wielding assailant in Seoul on March 5, 2015. (AFP photo)

North Korea has applauded a “knife attack of justice” that left the US ambassador to South Korea with 80 stitches, saying it was “just punishment” for the military exercises between Seoul and Washington.

A man with a history of violence, named by police as Kim Ki-jong, attacked Mark Lippert during an event in Seoul on Thursday morning as he was about to give a speech.

Lippert, 42, underwent two and a half hours of surgery. He was in stable condition Thursday but will remain hospitalized for at least three days, his doctors said.

North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said the attack reflected anti-US sentiment in South Korea and was a valid “expression of resistance.”

Police said the assailant wanted an end to the South Korean-US military drills which are held annually in the face of harsh criticism from the North.

“I carried out an act of terror,” the 55-year-old man shouted as he was wrestled to the ground by police just across the US embassy.

Hours after the attack, Lippert tweeted that he was "doing well and in great spirits." He added he planned to return to work soon.

The United States and South Korea both condemned the attack.

US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said, “We strongly condemn this act of violence.”

South Korea’s president, Park Geun-hye, slammed the attack as “intolerable” during a visit to the United Arab Emirates, calling it an assault on “the South Korea-US alliance.”

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.

HRJ/HRJ

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