the essentials After visiting the site of a new airport in Busan, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the opposition in South Korea, was walking in the port city, surrounded by a swarm of journalists, when a man ‘stabbed him in the neck. He was placed in intensive care.
Horrifying scene this Tuesday morning in South Korea. While traveling and surrounded by television cameras, South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in the neck in the southeastern port city of Busan. country.
Injured, the politician was thrown to the ground by his assailant. Photos later show him with a handkerchief covering his wound. He was still conscious when he was taken to hospital, where he was placed in intensive care.
The assailant was arrested on the spot and neutralized immediately after the attack by several security agents. The politician “was heading towards his car while speaking to journalists when the assailant asked him for an autograph before attacking him in the neck with what appeared to be a knife”, a witness told the local channel YTN.
Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, 59, lost to conservative Yoon Suk Yeol in South Korea’s 2022 presidential election. A former worker and governor of the country’s most populous province, he had proposed original measures, including a universal minimum income and free school uniforms.
Lots of suspicion
But his candidacy was marred by a series of scandals. He was notably criticized for a real estate transaction considered dubious. There were also persistent rumors that he had links with the mafia and his wife was accused of illegal use of public funds. In September 2023, Lee Jae-myung avoided arrest after a court rejected a prosecutor’s request for remand in custody pending trial on various corruption charges. He is suspected of corruption in connection with a company that allegedly illegally transferred $8 million to North Korea. He is finally accused of having caused a company to lose 20 billion won ($15 million) to a company owned by the city of Seongnam (northwest) of which he was mayor.
“This is an act of terror against Mr. Lee and a serious threat to democracy that should never happen under any circumstances,” Democratic Party lawmaker Kwon Chil-seung told reporters at the outside the hospital. “As for Mr. Lee’s state of health, we are awaiting the doctors’ assessment,” he added, demanding the opening of a “thorough” investigation.
Busan police said Mr. Lee suffered “a one-centimeter laceration to his neck,” that he “remained conscious and the bleeding was minor,” according to the Chosun Ilbo daily. A few hours later, however, his party indicated that he had been placed in intensive care.
President Yoon Suk Yeol expressed his “deep concern for Lee Jae-myung’s safety after learning of the attack” on Tuesday, according to South Korean presidential spokesperson Kim Soo-kyung. He also “emphasized that our society should never tolerate this type of act of violence, regardless of the circumstances,” she added.
In August 2022, after his defeat in the presidential elections, Lee Jae-myung began a hunger strike to denounce the “incompetent and violent” policies of the current conservative government. After not eating for 19 days, the politician was hospitalized. He is now expected to run again in the presidential election in 2027, an election for which he is a strong opponent according to recent polls.
2024-01-02 15:38:43
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