Korean Opposition Leader Stabbed by Crown-Wearing Assailant

The leader of South Korea’s main opposition party, Lee Jae-myung, was stabbed in the neck on Tuesday by an assailant wearing a paper crown with Lee’s name scrawled across the front, according to livestreamed footage of the attack.

Lee was in the port city of Busan, visiting the site of a proposed airport, when a middle-aged man approached the 59-year-old politician and asked for an autograph, the footage showed. He then lunged at Lee with what local media described as a “knife-like weapon,” reportedly leaving a one-centimeter gash.

Lee, who heads the country’s Democratic Party, narrowly lost the 2022 presidential election to conservative Yoon Suk Yeol. The attack occurred shortly before 10:30 a.m. while speaking to reporters, according to Yonhap. Lee did not lose consciousness, but he collapsed to the ground and “the bleeding continued,” the outlet reported. Photographs posted online by news outlets showed Lee, lying prone, with his eyes closed and pressure being applied to his neck with a handkerchief. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment, South Korean officials told Reuters.

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