SEOUL - South Korea’s opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in the neck during a visit to the southern port city of Busan on Jan 2, and was airlifted to Seoul after receiving emergency treatment, party and fire officials said.

The suspect, wearing a paper crown with Lee’s name on it, approached and asked for an autograph as Lee spoke among a throng of supporters and reporters.

The suspect then lunged forward and attacked him, video footage showed.

Lee, who narrowly lost the 2022 presidential election, underwent surgery at Seoul National University Hospital and was in an intensive care unit recovering and conscious, party spokesman Kwon Chil-seung told reporters.

He condemned the attack as “political terror”.

Mr Kwon said medical staff suspected damage to a jugular vein.

The attack unfolded quickly while Lee was touring the site of a proposed airport.

Television footage and a video clip on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, showed the man lunging with his arm stretched out and stabbing Lee in the neck, the force of the attack pushing Lee back into the crowd behind him.

Lee grimaced and collapsed to the ground.

News photographs showed Lee lying on the ground with his eyes closed and bleeding, and people pressing a handkerchief against his neck.

A Busan police official, Mr Son Je-han, told a news briefing that the assailant was born in 1957 and used an 18cm-long knife bought online.

He did not identify the suspect and said the motive was being investigated.

Police will seek a charge of attempted murder, media said.

Mr Jin Jeong-hwa, a Lee supporter who was at the scene live-streaming the event, told Reuters there were more than two dozen police officers present.

The assailant was quickly subdued by party officials and police officers, the footage showed.

President condemns attack

President Yoon Suk-yeol condemned the attack.

“This type of violence must never be tolerated under any circumstances,” his office quoted him as saying.

A former governor of Gyeonggi province, Lee narrowly lost to conservative Mr Yoon, a former chief prosecutor, in the 2022 presidential election. He has led the main opposition party since August 2022.

Lee is currently on trial for alleged bribery stemming from a development project when he was mayor of Seongnam near Seoul. He has denied any wrongdoing.

South Korea’s next parliamentary elections are slated for April.

The country has a history of political violence, though it has tough restrictions on gun possession.

There is police presence at major events, but political leaders are not normally under close security protection.

Lee’s predecessor Song Young-gil was attacked in 2022 by an assailant who swung a blunt object against his head, causing a laceration.

Then conservative opposition party leader Park Geun-hye, who later served as president, was slashed in the face at an event in 2006 and received a gash that required surgery.

Her father Park Chung-hee, who was president for 16 years after taking power in a military coup, was shot and killed by his spy chief in 1979 at a drunken private dinner. REUTERS