While speaking with media in the port city of Busan on Tuesday, Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the South Korean opposition party, was stabbed in the neck.
Footage from South Korean television stations showed Jae-myung walking among journalists following his tour to the location of a new airport when a man in front of him pounced and punched him in the neck.
The 59-year-old was seen collapsing to the ground as people rushed to aid him.
One man was seen pressing a handkerchief on Jae-myung’s neck.
He was “walking to his car while talking to reporters when the attacker asked for his autograph”, a witness told local broadcaster YTN, adding that the opposition leader was then struck with what “looked like a knife.”
Jae-myung was observed being taken into an ambulance by emergency personnel. The Yonhap news agency said that he was later flown to the hospital in a helicopter.
He was reportedly bleeding but conscious when he was brought to the Pusan National University Hospital, according to the agency.
“This is an act of terror against Lee and a serious threat to democracy that should never occur under any circumstances,” Kwon Chil-seung, an MP from Lee’s Democratic Party, told reporters outside the hospital.
“As to Lee’s condition, we are waiting for the medical staff’s assessment,” he added, demanding a “thorough” police investigation into the attack.
Police in Busan said Jae-myung suffered a “one-centimetre laceration on his neck” and that he “remains conscious and bleeding is minor”, according to South Korean news outlet Chosun Ilbo.
TV footage showed police officials wrestling the attacker to the ground. He was seen wearing a hat with Jae-myung’s name on it.
Yonhap said the assailant has been arrested.
Presidential contender
Jae-myung lost in 2022 to conservative Yoon Yeol in the tightest presidential race in South Korea’s history.
Yoon expressed “deep concern over the safety of Jae-myung upon hearing of the attack,” his spokeswoman Kim Soo-kyung said.
“Yoon emphasised our society should never tolerate this kind of act of violence under any circumstances,” she stated.
Playing up his rags-to-riches story, Jae-myung—a former child factory worker who suffered an industrial accident as a teenage school dropout—became a political celebrity.
It is highly probable that he would seek the presidency once more in 2027, and current polls show that he is still a formidable opponent.
Unfortunately, a number of scandals have clouded Jae-myung’s candidacy for president.
When a court denied the prosecution’s plea to place him under arrest while he awaited trial on several corruption-related accusations in September, he managed to avoid being brought into custody.
Jae-myung is still on trial for alleged bribery related to a company that may have sent $8 million to North Korea without authorization.
Additionally, he is charged with violating his duties, which reportedly caused a corporation owned by Seongnam city to lose 20 billion won ($15 million) when he served as mayor.
Jae-myung refutes every accusation made against him.
He began a hunger strike in August of last year in protest of the Yoon government’s “violent and incompetent” policies.
He had not eaten for 19 days when he was admitted to the hospital on September 18 due to illnesses associated with fasting.