Ruling Saenuri Party Chairman Kim Moo-sung, left, offers words of consolation to U.S. Ambassador to Korea Mark Lippert at Yonsei University's Severance Hospital in Seoul, Sunday. / Yonhap



By Kim Se-jeong

Doctors at Yonsei University Severance Hospital said Sunday that U.S. Ambassador to Korea Mark Lippert is recovering fast and may go home as early as Tuesday afternoon.

"Ambassador Lippert feels overwhelmed by the messages of support for him," the embassy's minister-counselor for public affairs, Robert W. Ogburn, said during a press conference. "The ambassador said kimchi is helping him recover."

Dr. Yoon Do-heum, the head of the hospital, said during a media briefing that the 80 stitches Lippert received for a facial injury would be removed today, and the pain in his left wrist was easing.

The ambassador had surgery Thursday for an 11-centimeter-long, 3-centimeter-deep gash on his right cheek and wounds to his left arm and finger after an assailant, Kim Ki-jong, slashed at him with a knife during a breakfast forum in central Seoul.

"The ambassador is in better condition," Yoon said.

Officials from the U.S. Embassy said the ambassador is taking his time off to read a book, "The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History" by Don Oberdorfer.

Lippert received high-profile visitors Sunday, including the ruling Saenuri Party Chairman Kim Moo-sung; the leader of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, Moon Jae-in; Strategy and Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan; and Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler.

"During Kim's visit, Lippert said it was an attack on not only him but also the U.S. but said the two countries should keep trying to solidify their alliance," Saenuri Party spokesman Park Dae-chul said. "He also thanked Koreans' for supporting him."

Meanwhile, Kim Ki-jong may be charged with violating the National Security Law as well as attempted murder after police found alleged pro-North Korean books at his home during a raid.

Police said they requested an in-depth review on 30 pieces of material owned by Kim, 55, who was placed under arrest late Friday night, to determine whether the contents are sympathetic to the North.

The 30 are among 219 printed works, books and computer files obtained during the raid on his house in central Seoul, Friday. Among them is a book about film theory written by former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, police said.

"A group of experts on North Korea will determine whether the material is pro-North Korean," a police officer said.

If the experts find the material has such content, Kim will face charges of violating the National Security Law, as well as charges of attempted murder and assaulting a foreign diplomat.

Kim claimed that he obtained the material for his post-graduate degree thesis on unification.

Police are investigating whether he has links to any pro-North Korean groups or had an accomplice. Kim previously denied this allegation, claiming that the attack was self-motivated. He said it was not until Thursday morning that he decided to carry the knife.

Police are investigating his phone call records and bank accounts, and summoned 10 people for questioning, including retired Yonsei University professor Roh Jeong-seon, to whom Kim gave fliers to distribute at the scene of the attack.

Meanwhile, North Korea Sunday renewed its support for Kim, likening him to independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun who assassinated former Japanese Prime Minister and Resident-General of Korea Hirobumi Ito in 1909.

The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland labeled Kim's attack an "expression of resistance."

"If Kim's act is a terrorist attack, independent activists' acts should have been regarded as a terrorist attack, too!" the committee said.