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U.S. ambassador to S Korea slashed while giving lecture

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His wife gave birth here and the couple gave their son a Korean middle name

That's really sweet.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

I don't think that the US being in Korea has anything to do with a reunification problem; US troops are still in Germany and they unified. It may have more to do with Koreans than anybody else.

20 ( +23 / -3 )

Ok, it's the US troops (and not the lunatic Kim family) that's the problem...

13 ( +13 / -0 )

I don't think that the US being in Korea has anything to do with a reunification problem; US troops are still in Germany and they unified. It may have more to do with Koreans than anybody else.

It appears this is the same person that threw a rock at Japanese Ambassador back in 2010.

Guess what his reasoning was at that time? He blamed Japan for the separation of Korea. You simply cannot make this thing up.

13 ( +19 / -6 )

Koreans always attack wrong persons.

With the years of headaches that have resulted from Japan attacking Korea, you could say that Japan most definitely attacked the wrong people.

-16 ( +5 / -21 )

The ambassador might have been bloodied, but it is the South Korean government with egg on their face. Don't look good for a host country when the ambassador of a major international player gets attacked.

12 ( +12 / -0 )

"a man only identified by his surname, Kim, was detained after the attack."

That tells us so much.

2 ( +11 / -9 )

The security detail @ this event was a joke. What if the assailant slashed someone else like M Obama or PM Abe???

5 ( +6 / -1 )

According to Japanese papers the ambassador was on route to deliver a speech at a lecture forum on reunification, which may explain not a motive but at least the timing of this particular attack. My own view on the troops is that we can stay as a deterrent but ratchet down the level of joint military exercises which would send subtle signals to the leaders of the DPRK that the United States is willing to work towards reducing military tension.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

With the years of headaches that have resulted from Japan attacking Korea, you could say that Japan most definitely attacked the wrong people.

Because, despite over 30 years as a Japanese colony, and the large number of collaborators you seem to have forgotten, Korea (when it was still a single country) was going to do what...?

3 ( +8 / -5 )

The guy who carried out the attack appears to be some kind of a mental piece. As he once attacked another Ambassador (a Japanese), he should have been kept under close watch. Just another nut case on the loose ...

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Ditto on "Koreans always attack the wrong person." As a group I'd love to see them think more critically about the history and relationship with all countries. They are wound up too tight, too.

1 ( +10 / -9 )

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-31743055

a picture of the guy with a foot on his head

3 ( +3 / -0 )

So one nutcase slips through and does this, and the usual Japan apologists rise up and shout "Koreans bad people!". But it's the same people who will defend Japan to the death, when other people point out how hundreds to thousands of Japanese are hate protesting march everyday against Koreans in Osaka or Tokyo, as just a 'few rotten' who don't represent the majority. Love the hypocrisy of some people here.

-13 ( +5 / -18 )

Can we not make this another thread about SK and Koreans, and Japan?! A Korean attacks a U.S. ambassador and was previously involved in an incident with the Japanese ambassador and some want to make generalisations about Korea and Koreans and/or revert to their own talking points about Korea and Japan?!

This was probably someone that was unhinged. Yes, maybe motivated by some sort of nationalistic ideas, but unhinged nonetheless. It's not like we don't have these types in Japan, the U.S., Europe and elsewhere.

Fortunately the Ambassador was not seriously injured. I do agree with @Wc626, that one would think that security should be better, particularly where it involves the Ambassador of a major country that might be the focus of threats.

5 ( +10 / -5 )

A blind date should be arranged immediately between Kim and Cho Hyun-ah (of nut rage fame). It could be a match made in heaven.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I do agree with @Wc626, that one would think that security should be better, particularly where it involves the Ambassador of a major country that might be the focus of threats.

The ambassador was trying to be a good peaceful ambassador to sooth hostile feelings, who was attending a breakfast conference held by a fringe leftist group who wanted the US troops stop training with South Korean troops, and wanted South Korea to give up the arms and join North Korea. In other words, who thinks like that in South Korea, other then some few radicals? The attacker belonged to this organization, and he attacked the ambassador because there was no protection. Why would this radical organization provide protection to their enemy?

Why do you hate Korea so much?

The attacker also served 3 years in prison and 2 years probation for throwing a brick at the Japanese ambassador (luckily he missed the target).

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

It is wise for all the American diplomats to shut up when their mouth is making noises to lecture on what is right or what is wrong especially on the soil of people who has strong resentment at you. By the way, the word 'ALLY' is not very comfortable in some asian people who ears.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

The attacker also served 3 years in prison and 2 years probation for throwing a brick at the Japanese ambassador

No prison. 2 years prison term sentence with a three year suspended sentence.

http://japanese.joins.com/article/346/197346.html

(luckily he missed the target).

He missed because the woman staff stuck her hand at the object. As a result, she suffered an injury that took a week to heal.

6 ( +12 / -6 )

This is what happens when a country praises an assassin as a national hero of independence movement. In due course, lunatic Kim will be remembered as a national hero of unification movement.

I think he should be accused of and punished for the attempted murder.

7 ( +13 / -6 )

The Japanese media and news is picking this up in a HUGE way currently, making this into a top story at this hour. I guess they're not going to let this fat golden opportunity to play up the anti-Korean hysterics and state sanctioned propaganda. How fare they're going to go this time, we will have to see.

-11 ( +2 / -13 )

I don't think slashing the ambassador is going to do much for Korean unification. "The Koreas should be unified!" he shouted while refusing to recycle plastic bottles. "Unify North and South Korea!" he screamed as his favorite soccer team lost in the championship game.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I think Korea has Mr Kim to blame for the failure to re-unify - the bloated windbag called Mr Kim Jong Un, that is...

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Typical idiot..... blame everybody but your own government and the idiot in N. Korea.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

What kind of country allows some lunatic to roam around room with VIPS?

...

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Those crazy K's

4 ( +7 / -3 )

"What kind of country allows some lunatic to roam around room with VIPS?"

@T_rexmaxytime.

A country that wants payback for a perceived slight. Either Monday or Tuesday of this week NHK ran video footage showing a high ranking US official (I can't remember her name but she looks a bit like Kathleen Sebilus) criticizing Korea for ratcheting up nationalism (against Japan) to cover over some of Korea's own short comings. This attack was most likely a response.

I don't believe in Jesus, Big Foot or the Lochness Monster but I would believe a photo of Big Foot and Jesus riding Nessie before I believe it is just a coincidence that 55-year-old Kim Ki-jong who has already attacked one ambassador somehow slipped through security, got a flippin' table and then slashed the US ambassador.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

No security checks? No body guards?

5 ( +5 / -0 )

HotmailMar. 05, 2015 - 11:31AM JST So one nutcase slips through and does this, and the usual Japan apologists rise up and shout "Koreans bad people!". >But it's the same people who will defend Japan to the death, when other people point out how hundreds to thousands >of Japanese are hate protesting march everyday against Koreans in Osaka or Tokyo, as just a 'few rotten' who don't >represent the majority. Love the hypocrisy of some people here.

SKorea has far more than "one" nutcase. And if you think there are thousands of people protesting against koreans in Osaka or Tokyo, you and I are not on te same planet. Crazed angry Koreans who throw their vitriol at other nations, especuially allies and those who protect them seem to be te majority in that country. But the NKoreas who occasionally kill SKOreans are OK., as are the Chinese who sent troops in 1950 to kill SKoreans.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

biculturalMar. 05, 2015 - 02:15PM JST

No security checks? No body guards?

Indeed. According to Yomiuri News, Kim was one of the 200 participants to the breakfast meeting and was seated two tables away from the ambassador. Kim did not have a prior reservation but applied on the spot and was accepted because there were empty seats. There were no security checks at the dining hall.

It is just unthinkable to me that the organizer accepted a person with such records.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

@hotmail: Actually, I wasn't suggesting that the protection of the Ambassador should be left to whatever organisation is handling the organisation he is attending. I was suggesting that he might need a better bodyguard hired by the U.S. Embassy or even one of the Marines attached to the U.S. Embassy.

I see there are a lot of people here who really seem to have an issue with the South Koreans and are using this incident to have a go at Korea and Koreans in general. That is a shame. In this day and age, when problems abound, this is the thinking that only perpetuates stereotypes and grievances. The world over. I would hope for more from those that are on a site like Japan Today.

Does Korea have its issues? Absolutely? Does Japan have its issues? Most certainly. Do they have issues with each other? Indeed. Does the U.S. (my home country) have issues and is partly to blame for much of the post-war dynamics in Japan and Korea? Without a doubt. Will it ever get better? Not if the kind of thinking that some exhibit here continues and is passed on to the succeeding generations.

May we all LLAP.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

" Kim also reportedly tried to set himself on fire with gasoline while protesting in front of the presidential Blue House in October 2007 "

That seems like the best idea this fruitcake had. Why didn´t they let him get on with that?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Maybe they should let the attacker be "reunified" with Bukhan (North Korea). Give him a one-way ticket there instead of incarcerating him at the good S. Korean taxpayers' expense.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

as much as people tend to complain about Japan, Korea never ceases to entertain me with its unlimited supply of crazies.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Papi2013Mar. 05, 2015 - 12:59PM JST The Japanese media and news is picking this up in a HUGE way currently, making this into a top story at this hour.

It's being picked up in a "HUGE way" around the world. At this hour it's the top news story at the BBC and the Daily Mail. Yep. They're really playing up the "anti-Korean hysterics and state sanctioned propaganda" around the world. Slashing the neck of an American ambassador, how newsworthy can that be? We should all just forget about this incident and drop it down the memory hole, like the murder of Durham White Stevens.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

When this nutcase attacked the Japanese ambassador he got a slap on the wrist and no doubt a few encouraging winks.

I doubt the same will happen this time.

Lesson: When you breed snakes you can never be sure who they bite.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

The ambassador is to blame. The detail for State Dpt security in all probability has had trouble with this guy in the past. One article read that he walked home from work alone. Also he walks with this pet basset hound alone.

Terrorist could not ask for a better target. Mr. Ambassador, did you learn anything from this ?

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

THat's a realnasty cut Lippert suffered, I hope he recovers completely.

Of course, the U.S. is mainly responsible for the continued division of Korea, which could have been unified under the capable leadership of Kim Il-Sung back in 1953, or under the capable leadership of his son Kim Jong-Il, or under the capable leadership of his son Kim Jong-Un...

1 ( +2 / -1 )

CNN reported that: "Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman said nationalist feelings can still be exploited and that it's not hard for a political leader anywhere to earn cheap applause by vilifying a former enemy. She said such provocations produce paralysis, not progress. South Koreans took her words as meaning she sided with Japan."

Then the attack on US ambassador happened. Think about it. Who let this thing happen under their watch?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

@Ka Chan... nooooo, that's not really true, you have to ask why are there two Koreas, the blames lies very much elsewhere.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

No doubt.... as others have mentioned.... this really makes the S. Korean Govt look bad. I'm starting to think that S. Korea is where, centuries ago, the Chinese sent all of their problem children.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

How come a well known criminal like him can be invited to the event? I think he has an accomplice.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

My thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery to Ambassador Mark Lippert.

It's not an easy job being an Ambassador in a region where Hard Lined Nationalists like North & South Korea are consistantly at the boiling points with not only themselves but Friendly Neighbors like Japan.

Our Diplomats & our U.S. Armed Forces are trying to hold together the "Status Quo".

My concern at this point was how and why the South Korean Government knowing this guy is a "Domestic Extremist" allowed him to remain on this "Reconciliation Committee" and gave him an invitation to this event and knowing his past (2010 he threw a piece of concrete at the Japanese Ambassador) would be within arms reach of a U.S. Ambassador.

The second he walked through the doors, he should've been stopped and turned away and or arrested right on the spot, but why wasn't he? Why is the South Korean Governemt apologizing for allowing a known "Domestic Extremist" into a forum without being searched and within reach of a U.S. Ambassador?

Is it because South Korea is at odds with the U.S. over our close friendship with Japan - a Country they detest?

Sorry, but I am not accepting South Korea's lousy apology for allowing this known Domestic Etremist into an event and within arms reach of a U.S. Ambassador without searching him for weapons and then condemning an attack that THEY allowed to happen via negligence? It's almost as if they knew this was going to happen and it was a shot at the U.S. who allies with Japan over a petty squabble regarding questionable issues stemming over 70 Years Ago during World War 2.

Even though North Korea is pouncing on the opportunity to Rub It In Our Noses, this attack had little to do with North Korea.

I blame it all on South Korea.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

What really fries my bacon is the idea that there are Koreans in the RoK who think that if the U.S. troops leave the peninsula, that North Korea will magically acquiesce to the unification envoys that the RoK has sent in the past. They fail to realize that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will invade again if the USA ever pulls the troops and the bases out. People like this Kim person who slashed the ambassador are merely naive or stupid. North Korea has every intention of invading if the US pulls out (just as I think mainland China would do similarly to Japan if the US pulls out of Japan) and the repression that current extremist "progressives" in the RoK think they have will be exponentially worse. This Kim person and his friends remind me of what is happening in the USA with regards to how we are currently attempting to treat with Iran and ISIS/ISIL. There IS NO discussion with those who want to destroy everything upon which one stands for. Period. This is what the DPRoK wants to do with the RoK and anyone who stands between it and such ambitions, and anyone who doesn't see that is --- again --- either grossly naive or entirely stupid.

As for this situation, I wish the Ambassador form the USA to the RoK a speedy recovery and full return to health.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

"Koreans always attack the wrong person.

As a group I'd love to see them think more critically about the history and relationship with all countries. They are wound up too tight, too".

As a group I'd love to see the Korea-bashing Kool-Aid imbibers at JT think more critically about the history and relationships of Northeast Asia. They always depend on stereotypes, too. Of course, in Japan opposition political figures never get stabbed to death on live TV... oh wait, they do.

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

As a group I'd love to see the Korea-bashing Kool-Aid imbibers at JT think more critically about the history and relationships of Northeast Asia. They always depend on stereotypes, too. Of course, in Japan opposition political figures never get stabbed to death on live TV... oh wait, they do.

Don't know what you are ranting about but this is a very serious matter for as a signatory to the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic Relations, South Korea has failed to live up to the standards that developed nations adhere to when it comes to "..treat him with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his person.."

Your country essentially gave this nutjob a slap on the wrist in 2010 which no doubt paved the way for this incident. As CH3CHO alluded to,

"This is what happens when a country praises an assassin as a national hero of independence movement. In due course, lunatic Kim will be remembered as a national hero of unification movement."

The assasination of Durham Stevens (Jang In-hwan and Jeon Myeong-un,) and Hirobumi Ito (An Jung-geun). Terrorist attacks by the likes of Yoon Bong-gil and I Bong-chang are all considered heroes in Korea.

Wouldn't suprise me one bit if Korea names a submarine after Kim Ki-jong "in due course".

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Heard he had to get 80 stitches. Much more serious than I thought. Hoping for a quick recovery.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

U.S. ambassador to S Korea slashed while giving lecture

Gee, how did Kim Ki-jong, a known Communist agitator with a long track history of aggressive actions get so near that mornings gala event?

http://heavy.com/news/2015/03/kim-ki-joong-mark-lippert-attacker-assault-us-ambassador-south-korea-seoul/

Either South Korea's security is so lax that any would be killer can get next to any high profile official or South Korea is filled with North Korean sympathizer. Either way this attack was a clear signal to the US that South Korea has a major problem and the US needs to reassess it's future relations with it.

Kim Ki-Jong had to have help getting in and getting so close to the Ambassador and that help had to come from someone in the South Korean government.

Kim Ki-Jong is well known for passed attacks and justice never seems to take this guy off the streets. Somehow each time he commits some insane act he gets off like he has inside connection. There is no such thing as dumb luck or coincidence, nothing happens by chance. This guy had help and it came from the South Korean government.

I expect that the only punishment that Kim Ki-Jong will get will be another suspended sentence. Hell, he may even become another national hero and get the Dongbaeg Medal for his service.

South Korea has a problem and it needs to address that problem.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

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