The suspect, wearing a paper crown with Lee’s name on it, approached and asked for an autograph as Mr. Lee spoke to a crowd of supporters and reporters. He then lunged forward and attacked him, according to video footage.
Lee Jae-myung is taken to Seoul National University Hospital after being attacked in Busan, South Korea on January 2, 2024. Yonhap
Media reports said police will charge the suspect with attempted murder. Jin Jeong-hwa, a Lee supporter who was at the scene to livestream the event, said there were more than two dozen police officers present at the time.
Mr Lee, who lost the 2022 South Korean presidential election, underwent surgery at Seoul National University Hospital and is in the intensive care unit to recover, Democratic Party spokesman Kwon Chil-seung told reporters.
The attack happened quickly as Mr Lee was touring the proposed airport site. Television footage showed the man lunging forward with his arm outstretched and stabbing Mr Lee in the neck, the force of the blow knocking him back into the crowd behind him.
Mr. Lee collapsed in pain. Photos show Mr. Lee lying on the ground, eyes closed and bleeding, with a handkerchief pressed to his neck.
Busan police official Son Je-han said at a press conference that the attacker was born in 1957 and used an 18-centimeter knife bought online. He did not identify the suspect and said the motive was under investigation.
Video footage shows the attacker quickly being subdued by officials and police. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol condemned the attack, quoting his office as saying: “This kind of violence can never be tolerated under any circumstances.”
Mr. Lee Jae-myung speaks before the attack during a visit to Busan, South Korea. Photo: Yonhap
A former governor of Kyunggi Province, Mr. Lee lost to Mr. Yoon in the 2022 presidential election. He has led the main opposition party since August 2022. South Korea's next parliamentary election is due in April this year.
There have been several attacks on senior South Korean leaders in the past. Mr. Lee's predecessor, Song Young-gil, was attacked in 2022 by an assailant who struck him on the head with a hard object, causing a laceration.
In 2006, then-opposition Conservative Party leader Park Geun-hye, who later became South Korea's president, was attacked with a knife in the face at an event and suffered a wound that required surgery.
Her father, Park Chung-hee, who was President of South Korea for 16 years, was even assassinated by his then-administration's intelligence chief Kim Jae-gyu in 1979 during a private dinner.
Huy Hoang (according to Yonhap, Reuters)
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