The US ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert found himself on the receiving end of a knife attack while attending a function in the country on Wednesday the 5th of March, 2015.
The surprise attack occurred at a breakfast function in the country’s capital of Seoul.
Witness report that Kim Ki-Jong lunged across the Ambassador’s breakfast table yelling “South and North Korea should be reunified!”
Ki-Jong was eventually tackled, but not before slashing Ambassador Lippert’s arm and face. A doctor that saw Lippert reported that the Ambassador was “lucky” and may suffer from some nerve damage from the attack.
North Korea made a statement that the attack was “just punishment” and a valid “expression of resistance”.
Korea has been divided into two separate nations since the end of World War II hostilities, with the Soviet Union controlling what is now the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, and the U.S controlling South Korea. This division eventually resulted in the Korean War of the 1950’s.
Talks on the reunification of the two Koreas were started on June 15, 2000. The stalling of the talks have been attributed to differences due to difficulties resulting from decades of division of the Eastern nation.
Lippert is expected to make a quick recovery after a short stay in a Seoul hospital.
