2024-01-02 04:06:17
The leader of the South Korean opposition, Lee Jae Myung, was attacked this Tuesday with an unidentified object during a visit to the port city of Busan, in the southeast of the country, and was taken to hospital with a neck wound while conscious. Police have not reported the condition of Lee, 59, although local news reports suggest his life is out of danger.
Lee, of the Democratic Party, was stabbed in the left side of the neck at around 10:27 (2:27 in mainland Spain) during a meeting with journalists after visiting the construction of a new airport on Gadeokdo Island. According to the images captured by South Korean television cameras, which were broadcasting the event, the attacker made his way through the crowd of supporters, supposedly to ask for an autograph, before rushing towards him and attacking him with a knife of about 20 or 30 centimeters in length, according to witnesses cited by local media.
Following the attack, Lee has been stabilized and taken to a nearby hospital. At the time of the transfer, the politician was still conscious, although the bleeding continued, reports the South Korean news agency Yonhap. The attacker, who is around 60 years old, has been detained at the scene, reports the Yonhap agency. As of early afternoon in South Korea, police continue to give no details about the motive for the attack.
Lee, who was mayor of the southern city of Seongnam and governor of the country’s most populous province, Gyeonggi, was scheduled to go to the residence of former South Korean president Moon Jae In (2017-2022) and have lunch together.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has expressed his “deep concern” for Lee’s safety and has ordered relevant authorities to investigate the attack. “Such violence should never be tolerated in our society, under any circumstances,” said the president’s spokesman, Kim Soo Kyung.
The opposition leader is not currently a member of the country’s legislature, but is expected to run in the next general elections that will take place in April 2024 and in the presidential elections in 2027. In 2022, he lost the presidential elections by a margin of less than a percentage point compared to the conservative Yoon.
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Since then, he has been accused of corruption and breach of trust, and Justice is investigating his alleged participation in an urban corruption scandal in which the money raised would have been used to finance the presidential campaign. Lee has denied all charges and went on a 19-day hunger strike in protest, during which he accused President Yoon of using a criminal justice system to intimidate his political opponents. Although he has not been arrested, he faces a series of trials.
South Korean politics has become polarized in recent years, and tension between supporters of Yoon and Lee has been growing as spring parliamentary elections approach. Although physical attacks are not common, the Asian nation has witnessed high-profile incidents of political violence in the past.
Lee’s predecessor in the Democratic Party, Song Young-gil, was attacked in the head with a hammer during an election rally for Lee’s presidential bid in 2022. In 2006, conservative politician Park Geun-hye, then leader of the opposition, was stabbed in the face with a box cutter by a man. Six years later, Park won the election.
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