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Who is this man who attacked US ambassador?

March 5, 2015

Kim Ki-jong, 55, attacked U.S. Ambassador to Korea Mark Lippert with a knife in central Seoul, Thursday. (Yonhap)

By Lee Min-hyung

55-year-old suspect Kim Ki-jong slashed U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert’s left wrist and face with a knife at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Seoul, Thusday.

He was immediately arrested on the scene.

“Today I committed a terrorist act,” he told the police. “I made handouts in opposition to a military drill.”

His crime came three days after the South and the United States began their annual Key Resolve exercise on Monday.

This is not the first time Kim committed crimes of its kind.

55-year-old suspect Kim Ki-jong gets arrested on the scene. (Yonhap)

Kim, leader of a pro-North Korea activist group that wants unification on the peninsula, threw two chunks of cement at the Japanese Ambassador to Korea in 2010 and was arrested. He was given a three-year suspended jail term. Following this, he wrote a book about this incident.

He also attempted to burn himself to death in 2007 in front of Cheong Wa Dae, demanding the truth about a rape in 1998 when a woman was attacked by four unidentified assailants who fled from the scene and no one was arrested for the sexual assault.