The person who stabbed the primary opposition chief of South Korea within the neck final week wished to kill him in order that he would by no means turn into president, the police mentioned, in an alarming escalation of the nation’s political polarization.
A 66-year-old man who was arrested after the assault was handed over to prosecutors on Wednesday to be formally indicted on a cost of tried homicide. The South Korean police didn’t launch his identify, however he was recognized by native information media by his surname, Kim.
The person, the police mentioned, had deliberate to kill Lee Jae-myung, the chief of the liberal Democratic Social gathering, for months, even getting ready an eight-page manifesto and asking a good friend to launch it to relations and the information media after the assault.
On Wednesday, Mr. Lee, 59, was launched from a hospital in Seoul, the capital, the place he had been recovering from surgical procedure to a jugular vein that was broken within the assault.
The assault, the worst towards a South Korean politician in almost 20 years, drew consideration to the polarization and mutual hostility between conservative and liberal South Koreans that gave the impression to be deepening forward of parliamentary elections scheduled for April. Mr. Lee misplaced the presidential election in 2022 to Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative, by a razor-thin margin, and he hopes to run once more in 2027.
Dealing with supporters and TV cameras as he left Seoul Nationwide College Hospital, Mr. Lee referred to as for “an finish to warlike politics the place one facet is just not glad till it kills the opposite facet.”
“I hope that this incident, which has shocked everybody, might be a milestone towards ending politics of hatred and confrontation and restoring politics of mutual respect and coexistence,” he mentioned.
The suspect was “pushed by his private political convictions to commit this excessive crime,” mentioned Woo Cheol-moon, the police chief in Busan, a port metropolis in southeastern South Korea the place the Jan. 2 assault occurred.
The suspect informed investigators that he was sad with what he noticed as gradual progress in making an attempt Mr. Lee, who faces corruption and different costs. Mr. Lee has denied these costs and has accused Mr. Yoon’s authorities of utilizing the investigations as political revenge.
By killing Mr. Lee, the person hoped to “block him from turning into president” and hinder his political allies within the upcoming parliamentary elections, Mr. Woo mentioned throughout a information briefing.
The suspect made comparable claims in his eight-page manifesto, whose textual content was not launched, Mr. Woo added.
The person insisted that he had acted alone, and the police mentioned they may discover no others concerned within the assault. However they questioned a person in his 70s who they mentioned was briefed by the suspect about his plan and entrusted with seven sealed envelopes that contained his manifesto and had been addressed to relations and information shops. The suspect requested the person to put up his manifesto solely to his relations if he didn’t kill Mr. Lee, the police mentioned. The mail was intercepted by the police earlier than it reached the relations.
The police mentioned that the suspect had deliberate an assault for months, shopping for a tenting knife on-line in April final yr. He started stalking Mr. Lee in June, attending six of his political occasions across the nation, officers mentioned. When he approached Mr. Lee on Jan. 2, he was carrying a paper crown and carrying a hand-held signal to make him seem like a supporter. He requested for Mr. Lee’s autograph earlier than plunging his knife into his neck, based on live-streamed footage of the assault.
He was detained by the police on the spot.
“I’m sorry for inflicting considerations,” he informed reporters on Wednesday as he was transferred from a police station in Busan. Earlier than coming into the prosecutors’ workplace, he informed reporters that he had acted alone.
“How might I plan this with another person?” he mentioned.
The police didn’t disclose the suspect’s political affiliation, citing privateness rules, however mentioned he appreciated to look at conservative YouTube channels. South Korean information media mentioned the suspect was a member of Mr. Yoon’s conservative Individuals Energy Social gathering earlier than he shifted his membership to Mr. Lee’s Democratic Social gathering final yr in an obvious try to realize higher entry to his political schedules.
Mr. Yoon has condemned the knife assault as an act of “terror,” and his occasion blamed it on “radicalized politics.” However Mr. Lee’s opposition occasion on Wednesday accused the police of withholding particulars of the suspect’s occasion affiliations to reduce the potential political fallout towards Mr. Yoon and his occasion forward of the April elections.
“Whereas the police refused to reveal full knowledge, we see the flood of faux information about this political terror reaching a harmful stage,” mentioned Kwon Chilseung, a spokesman of the Democratic Social gathering.
Mr. Lee’s slender loss to Mr. Yoon in 2022 has solely exacerbated the political divide in South Korea, with their fervent supporters spreading hate speech and conspiracy theories towards one another on-line. After Mr. Lee was attacked, lots of his conservative detractors unfold rumors that the episode was “pretend information” and that Mr. Lee had solely suffered a minor harm from a “paper knife” or a “wood chopstick.”
