U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert is recovering from injuries he sustained in a knife attack that occurred while he was at a breakfast meeting in Seoul.
Pictures capturing the aftermath are pretty gruesome:
55-year-old Kim Ki-jong was caught and arrested following the attack.
Reuters has the details:
Kim was dressed in traditional Korean clothing and shouted that North and South Korea should be reunited just before he attacked Lippert. He also shouted that he opposed “war exercises”, an apparent reference to annual joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began this week.”The guy comes in wearing traditional Korean brown and tan dress. He yells something, goes up to the ambassador and slashes him in the face,” witness Michael Lammbrau of the Arirang Institute think tank told Reuters.Kim is a member of the pro-Korean unification group that hosted the event, according to police. He also stages one-man protests against Japan over disputed islands known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese.”People wrestled the guy to the ground, the ambassador was still in his chair. The ambassador fought him from his seat … There was a trail of blood behind him. He had about a seven inch-long gash on the right side of his face,” Lammbrau said.
The State Department has labeled what happened a “senseless attack”:
We’ll be keeping Ambassador Lippert in our prayers.
Featured image via Ambassador Lippert’s Twitter account.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY