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The person who stabbed the principle opposition chief of South Korea within the neck final week needed to kill him in order that he would by no means change into president, the police stated, 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 title, however he was recognized by native information media by his surname, Kim.
The person, the police stated, had deliberate to kill Lee Jae-myung, the chief of the liberal Democratic Get together, for months, even making ready an eight-page manifesto and asking a good friend to launch it to family 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 known as for “an finish to warlike politics the place one facet will not be glad till it kills the opposite facet.”
“I hope that this incident, which has shocked everybody, will likely be a milestone towards ending politics of hatred and confrontation and restoring politics of mutual respect and coexistence,” he stated.
The suspect was “pushed by his private political convictions to commit this excessive crime,” stated Woo Cheol-moon, the police chief in Busan, a port metropolis in southeastern South Korea the place the Jan. 2 assault passed off.
The suspect instructed investigators that he was sad with what he noticed as sluggish progress in attempting Mr. Lee, who faces corruption and different fees. Mr. Lee has denied these fees 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 changing into president” and hinder his political allies within the upcoming parliamentary elections, Mr. Woo stated 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 stated they may discover no others concerned within the assault. However they questioned a person in his 70s who they stated was briefed by the suspect about his plan and entrusted with seven sealed envelopes that contained his manifesto and had been addressed to family and information shops. The suspect requested the person to publish his manifesto solely to his family if he didn’t kill Mr. Lee, the police stated. The mail was intercepted by the police earlier than it reached the family.
The police stated 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 stated. When he approached Mr. Lee on Jan. 2, he was sporting a paper crown and carrying a hand-held signal to make him appear 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 issues,” he instructed reporters on Wednesday as he was transferred from a police station in Busan. Earlier than coming into the prosecutors’ workplace, he instructed reporters that he had acted alone.
“How may I plan this with another person?” he stated.
The police didn’t disclose the suspect’s political affiliation, citing privateness laws, however stated he favored to observe conservative YouTube channels. South Korean information media stated the suspect was a member of Mr. Yoon’s conservative Individuals Energy Get together earlier than he shifted his membership to Mr. Lee’s Democratic Get together final yr in an obvious try to achieve higher entry to his political schedules.
Mr. Yoon has condemned the knife assault as an act of “terror,” and his celebration blamed it on “radicalized politics.” However Mr. Lee’s opposition celebration on Wednesday accused the police of withholding particulars of the suspect’s celebration affiliations to reduce the potential political fallout towards Mr. Yoon and his celebration forward of the April elections.
“Whereas the police refused to reveal full information, we see the flood of faux information about this political terror reaching a harmful stage,” stated Kwon Chilseung, a spokesman of the Democratic Get together.
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, a lot of his conservative detractors unfold rumors that the episode was “faux information” and that Mr. Lee had solely suffered a minor harm from a “paper knife” or a “wood chopstick.”
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