The leader of the South Korean opposition, Lee Jae Myung, was stabbed this Tuesday with a 20-centimeter knife in the middle of the street. The scene is Dantesque and has shocked the Asian country. Lee, of the Democratic Party (DP), has been taken consciously to hospital with a wound to his neck, for which he had to undergo surgery. At the moment, his condition is unknown, but apparently he is not afraid for his life.
🔴🇰🇷 ⚠️ Sensitive images.
This was the exact moment opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in the neck in Busan, South Korea. pic.twitter.com/PxFkBcIST1
— Alt Right Spain (@ModoAlt) January 2, 2024
According to initial reports, the attacker allegedly approached him to ask for an autograph before lunging towards him. The event took place at around 10:27 a.m. (2:27 a.m. Spanish peninsular time) during a visit to the port city of Busan, in the southeast of the country. At the time of the stabbing, he was meeting with journalists after visiting the construction of a new airport on Gadeokdo Island.
After the attack, Lee has been stabilized and transferred to a nearby hospital, while the attacker, who was around 60 years old and posed as a sympathizer, has been arrested at the scene accused of attempted murder, according to reports. reported the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has expressed concern for Lee's safety and has ordered relevant authorities to investigate the attack. “Such violence should never be tolerated under any circumstances,” said the president's spokesman, Kim Soo Kyung.
The opposition leader is not currently a member of the country's legislature, but is expected to run in the next general elections that will take place in April 2024 and in the presidential elections in 2027. In 2022 he lost the presidential elections by a difference of less than one percentage point compared to Yoon.
Since then, he has been accused of corruption and breach of trust. Justice is investigating his alleged participation in an urban corruption scandal in which the money raised would have been used to finance the presidential campaign, an aspect that Lee has denied.
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