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| China-Japan-Koreas | ||||
| U.S. envoy to Seoul injured in razor attack | ||||
| 2015-03-05 | ||||
SEOUL -- U.S. Amb. to South Korea Mark Lippert was injured Thursday in an attack by a razor-wielding assailant who said he was against the ongoing military drills between the two countries, police said.
Witnesses said Kim, coming from behind, pushed Lippert onto the table and started assaulting him. The envoy was about to start his meal at the breakfast meeting preceding his speech, police said. It is the first time a U.S. ambassador has been attacked in South Korea. Lippert, 42, took office last year as the youngest-ever U.S. ambassador to South Korea. His wife gave birth to a son here in late January and the couple gave him a Korean middle name. He was formerly the assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs from 2011 to 2012. He also served as the chief of staff to former U.S. defense secretary Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon. The suspect shouted his opposition to the annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle military exercises that started Monday, police said. The exercises are part of Seoul and Washington's efforts to better deter threats from North Korea.
Kim is the head of a liberal organization that protests Japan's territorial claims over South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo. He changed the address of his family register to Dokdo in 2006 after the Japanese prefecture of Shimane designated a day named after Takeshima, which is what the islets are called in Japan. According to recent blog posts, Kim appears to have shifted his attention from the islets issue to the role the U.S. plays in inter-Korean relations. On Tuesday, Kim wrote a post that condemned the military drills between South Korea and the U.S., calling it "the reason why the union between family members (separated by the 1950-53 Korean War) couldn't take place." "If the two countries reduce the scale and period of the exercises, North Korea would respond accordingly," he wrote. The U.S. said it "strongly (condemns) this act of violence" in a statement by State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf.
Police said they will strengthen the security around U.S.-related facilities and personnel from now on to prevent similar attacks in a measure criticized as being too late. The organizer of the event where Lippert was to give a speech apologized for the loose security and condemned the attack as "anti-humanitarian terrorism." "We send our deepest apologies to the governments of South Korea and the U.S.," the Korea Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation said in a statement. "We wish for the speedy recovery of Mr. Lippert and send our deepest condolences to his family." | ||||
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #2 the AP article at UTsandiego.com couldn't have been more biased and anti-American. Somehow this poor "patriot" who only wanted peaceful reunion of North/South wa striking a blow against US hegemony. *spit* |
| Posted by: Frank G 2015-03-05 10:39 |
| #1 According to An Nahar this morning, the ambassador came through surgery just fine, though it took 80 stitches and the cut came just short of his carotid artery: Kim was a known maverick activist who had been handed a two-year suspended sentence in 2010 for throwing a rock at the then Japanese ambassador to Seoul. Kim runs a small activist group that pushes for reunification with North Korea and regularly organises protests against Japanese territorial claims to a group of small islands controlled by South Korea. A Unification Ministry official told Agence France Presse that Kim had visited North Korea at least half a dozen times between 2006 and 2007. Writing on the group's blog on Tuesday, Kim had complained that the joint U.S.-South Korea drills were blocking dialogue between North and South Korea and preventing reunions for family members divided by the 1950-53 Korean War. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2015-03-05 09:12 |