U.S. ambassador slashed in Korea The suspect said he is against a joint U.S.-South Korean military training exercise that began this week.

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert was attacked with a knife before a breakfast event in Seoul on Thursday morning, local time.

South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported that the attacker said he was opposed to a joint U.S.-South Korean military training exercise that began earlier this week.


The suspect, who has been identified as a 55-year-old man named Kim Ki-jong sliced Lippert’s face and wrist just before 7:40 a.m. local time. According to The Associated Press, he screamed “South and North Korea should be reunified” as he struck.

Kim was taken into police custody.

Lippert, a former White House aide and Pentagon official who was once one of President Barack Obama’s closest advisers on foreign policy, was on his way into Sejong Hall for a breakfast event when he was assaulted.

The joint military training exercise critiqued by Kim was reported to be the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle military drills that started Monday, police told Yonhap News. The exercise is one of the world’s largest annual joint military training programs and is a source of continuing tension with the North Korean government.

The suspect had reportedly been charged and had served a suspended two-year prison sentence for a July 2010 incident in which he reportedly threw a piece of concrete at the Japanese ambassador to South Korea.

Lippert was preparing to give a speech at Sejong Hall in Seoul.

The bloodied ambassador was taken to a local hospital. The State Department released a statement confirming that his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.

Bernadette Meehan, a spokewoman for the National Security Council, said Obama had called Lippert “to tell him that he and his wife Robyn are in his thoughts and prayers, and to wish him the very best for a speedy recovery.”