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He was hospitalized in the intensive care unit, his party said on Tuesday.
Published on 02/01/2024 07:42 Updated on 02/01/2024 1:22 p.m
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South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on January 2, 2024 in Busan, South Korea. (YONHAP/AFP)
South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in the neck while speaking to journalists in Busan, southeast of the country, on Tuesday, January 2. After touring the site of a new airport, the 59-year-old politician was walking in the port city, surrounded by a swarm of journalists, when a man stabbed him in the neck, according to images on local television.
The attacker was arrested
The person then collapsed to the ground while several people rushed to help him and cover his injury. He was taken by ambulance and then by helicopter to Busan National University Hospital in the south of the city, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said. He was still conscious at the time. According to Yonhap, the attacker was later arrested.
Busan police said Lee Jae-myung suffered “a one-centimeter laceration on his neck” and that he “remained conscious and bleeding was minor,” the Chosun Ilbo daily reported.
“Damage to the internal jugular vein has been confirmed,” said his party, the Democratic Party. The leader “is currently in intensive care and recovering,” his party added. Lee Jae-myung lost in the 2022 presidential election to the conservative and current South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.