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Prison for US ambassador's attacker

September 11, 2015

A court has sentenced a South Korean man who slashed and seriously injured the US ambassador earlier this year. The assailant had attacked the Japanese ambassador in 2010.

https://p.dw.com/p/1GUpG
Kim Ki-jong Südkorea Attentäter Mark Lippert US Botschafter
Image: Reuters/Kim Ju-sung/Yonhap

A court in the capital Seoul sentenced 56-year-old Kim Ki-Jong to 12 years in prison Friday for attacking and seriously wounding the US ambassador to South Korea.

US ambassador Mark Lippert was attending a breakfast forum in March to discuss Korean reunification when the man lunged at the diplomat, slashing his face, hands and wrist with a paring knife.

Lippert suffered a deep gash to his face that required 80 stitches and put him in the hospital for five days.

Denied intent to kill

Südkorea Attentäter Mark Lippert US Botschafter
Kim Ki-Jong denied the March 5 knife attack was an attempt on Ambassador Mark Lippert's life.Image: Reuters/Yonhap

But while admitting the assault, Kim repeatedly denied any intent to kill the ambassador, insisting that his aim was to bring attention to his campaign against US-South Korea military drills.

South Korea and its key ally the United States hold regular joint military exercises, which North Korea condemns as preparations for an invasion.

The 1950-1953 Korean War remains unresolved with the two nations still technically at war.

South Korean authorities say Kim had visited North Korea seven times and once tried to erect a memorial in Seoul to the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il after his death in 2011.

But the communist nation rejected accusations that it may have been behind the attack on Lippert as a "vicious" smear campaign, although the official KCNA news agency described the assault as "just punishment" for Washington's refusal to cancel the joint military exercises.

In passing judgment, the Seoul Central District Court noted Kim had "shown no repentance, attempting to justify his actions throughout the trial."

The court convicted him of attempted murder, assaulting a foreign envoy and obstruction, according to court spokesman Joon Young Maeng. He was acquitted of a third charge of aiding North Korea.

Both Kim and the prosecution - which sought a 15-year sentence - have one week to determine whether to appeal.

It was not Kim's first attack on a top diplomat. He had been handed a two-year suspended sentence in 2010 for throwing a rock at the Japanese ambassador in the capital.

jar/bw (AP, Reuters, AFP)