US Ambassador Slashed On Face n Wrist With Knife

Mark Lippert a US ambassador to South Korea was attacked; slashed on the face and wrist by a knife-wielding attacker shouting for merging of the separated cape.
The 42-year-old Mark Lippert was taken hospital after the attack during a breakfast speech in Seoul, and underwent surgery for more than two hours. His injuries were not life-threatening.
He needed 80 stitches for an 11cm (4in) gash to the right of his face and a cut to his left arm which ruptured a tendon and caused nerve damage.

Footage taken after the attack showed the ambassador being rushed out of the building holding one hand to his bleeding right cheek, with his other hand smeared with blood.

Security staff and police officers were seen jumping on the ambassador's assailant, who was armed with a 10-inch blade.

Hours later, Mr Lippert tweeted that he was "doing well and in great spirits!"

Doctors said he will probably be in hospital for up to four days and may experience sensory problems in his left hand for several months.

President Barack Obama called Mr Lippert, a former aide, to wish him a swift recovery, while a US State Department spokeswoman said: "We strongly condemn this act of violence."

Police have identified the suspected attacker as 55-year-old Kim Ki-Jong, who has a previous conviction for assaulting the Japanese ambassador to Seoul in 2010.

"I carried out an act of terror," he shouted as he was pinned to the floor.

Police said they had detained the attacker and started an investigation.

North Korea described the attack as "just punishment" for the US decision to push ahead with joint military exercises with South Korea.

"Just punishment for US warmongers," ran the headline of a brief dispatch by the official KCNA news agency, which called the attack a valid "expression of resistance".

South and North Korea have been divided since the 1950-53 Korean War and are still technically at war because the fighting ended in a truce.

The US and South Korea launched annual joint military exercises this week leading to heightened tensions with the communist North.

Pyongyang claims they are rehearsals for an invasion, while South Korea and the US argue they are purely defensive. America has almost 30,000 troops permanently stationed in the South.