SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean police on Wednesday raided the residence and workplace of a person who stabbed the nation’s opposition chief, Lee Jae-myung, within the neck in an assault that left him hospitalized in an intensive care unit, officers stated.
The assault occurred when Lee was passing by way of a throng of journalists after visiting the proposed website of a brand new airport within the southeastern metropolis of Busan on Tuesday. The attacker, posing as a supporter, approached Lee asking for his autograph earlier than he took out a 18-centimeter (7-inch) knife to assault him.
After receiving emergency therapy in Busan, Lee was transported by a helicopter to the Seoul Nationwide College Hospital for surgical procedure. Cho Jeong-sik, the get together’s secretary common, stated Wednesday the two-hour surgical procedure was profitable and that Lee remained within the hospital’s intensive care unit for restoration. Police and emergency officers earlier stated Lee was acutely aware after the assault and wasn’t in important situation.
The suspect was detained by police instantly after the assault. Police stated he advised investigators he tried to kill Lee and that he had plotted his assault alone, however his motive is unknown.
Busan police stated they despatched officers to look the suspect’s residence and workplace within the central metropolis of Asan on Wednesday as a part of their investigation. Police stated they plan to ask for a proper arrest warrant for the suspect over alleged tried homicide.
Police disclosed few additional particulars concerning the suspect besides that he was aged about 67 and acquired the climbing knife on-line. Police refused to reveal what sort of workplace he has in Asan, however native media images confirmed officers looking an actual property workplace.
Lee, 59, is a tough-speaking liberal who misplaced the 2022 presidential election to President Yoon Suk Yeol by 0.7 proportion factors, the narrowest margin recorded in a South Korean presidential election. Their carefully fought presidential race and post-election bickering between their allies have deepened South Korea’s already-toxic conservative-liberal divide.
Current public surveys have put Lee as one of many two main early favorites for the subsequent presidential election in 2027, together with Yoon’s in style former justice minister, Han Dong-hoon. Yoon is by regulation barred from looking for reelection.
In a New Yr assembly involving prime officers, politicians and common residents on Wednesday, Yoon repeated his want for Lee’s fast restoration. He additionally condemned the assault on Lee as “a terrorist assault” that’s “an enemy to all of us and an enemy to liberal democracy,” in response to his workplace. Lee was imagined to attend that assembly.
Lee has been a vocal critic of Yoon. Final yr, he launched a 24-day starvation strike to protest Yoon’s main insurance policies, together with what he known as Yoon’s refusal to firmly oppose Japan’s launch of handled radioactive wastewater from its crippled Fukushima nuclear energy.
Lee has been grappling with a protracted prosecutors’ investigation over a variety of corruption allegations. Lee has denied authorized wrongdoing and accused Yoon’s authorities of pursuing a political vendetta.
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Related Press author Jiwon Track contributed to this report.