Photos: Knife Wielding Activist Attacks US Ambassador To South Korea, Slashes His Face And Wrist

Horrific: The face of the U.S. Ambassador needed 80 stitches after it was slashed open by a man who reportedly yelled 'North Korea and South Korea should be unified'

                      A knife attack on Thursday morning that injured the U.S. ambassador to South Korea as he attended a breakfast meeting in Seoul is the latest act of political violence in a deeply divided country where some protesters portray their causes as matters of life and death.

                     The attack which left a gash on  Mark Lippert's face started under his cheekbone and extended diagonally across his cheek toward his jawbone. His arm was also slashed. He received 80 stiches to close the 11-centimeter (4-inch) wound, Chung Nam-sik of Severance Hospital told reporters. Lippert, 42, also had surgery on his arm to repair damage to tendons and nerves and is in stable condition at the hospital.

Purported U.S. interference in Korean affairs appeared to be the main grievance of the man police named as the assailant, Kim Ki-jong, 55, who has a long history of anti-U.S. protests.

"South and North Korea should be reunified," Kim shouted as he slashed Lippert with a 25-centimeter (10-inch) knife, police and witnesses said.

About nine hours after the attack, Lippert posted on his Twitter account that he was "doing well and in great spirits" and would be back "ASAP" to advance the U.S.-South Korean alliance.

The State Department said it could not speculate on a motive at this time, and that South Korean President Park Geun-hye had called Lippert in the hospital to express her condolences.

Kim is well-known among police and activists as one of a hard-core group of protesters willing to use violence to highlight their causes. Such protesters often speak of their actions in terms of a war, of a struggle to the death.

Kim told police that he attacked Lippert to protest U.S.-South Korean military drills that started Monday — exercises that the North has long maintained are preparations for an invasion. Kim said the drills, which Seoul and Washington say are purely defensive, ruined efforts for reconciliation between the two Koreas, officials at Seoul's Jongno police station said in a televised briefing.

North Korea's state-controlled media later crowed that Kim's "knife slashes of justice" were "a deserved punishment on war maniac U.S." and reflected the South Korean people's protests against the U.S. for driving the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war because of the joint military drills.
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Lippert became ambassador last October and has been a regular presence on social media and in speeches and presentations during his time in Seoul. His wife gave birth here and the couple gave their son a Korean middle name.

He will need treatment at the hospital for the next three or four days and may experience sensory problems in his left hand for several months, said Chung, the hospital official.

Following the attack, President Obama called Ambassador Lippert to check in on his condition. 

'The President called U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, Mark Lippert, to tell him that he and his wife Robyn are in his thoughts and prayers, and to wish him the very best for a speedy recovery,' a White House spokesman said in a statement. 

Photos from the incident below:

Bloodied: U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert was attacked by a knife-wielding assailant before a morning lecture in Seoul on Thursday

Weapon: Police found and bagged the knife used by a 'pro-North Korea' activist to carve open Ambassador Lippert's face