US Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert was in stable condition on Thursday after being cut on the face and wrist by a pro-North Korean activist who said he was against the ongoing military drills by Seoul and Washington, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Lippert, bleeding, was rushed to a hospital in western Seoul and underwent an operation, police said.
A 55-year-old knife-wielding assailant attacked the envoy who was having breakfast at an event in downtown Seoul where he was to give a lecture. The man was arrested on the spot, with the police considering various charges for the warrant, including attempted murder.
Lippert was wounded on his right cheek and left wrist and sustained some cuts to his arm and fingers, authorities said.
The US Embassy in the South Korean capital confirmed that the ambassador was in stable condition.
The organizer of Thursday's event, the Korea Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, said the man had not been invited to the event but somehow was able to get in. It is the first time a US ambassador has been attacked in South Korea. Lippert, 42, took office last year as the youngest-ever US ambassador to Seoul.
The attacker shouted his opposition to the annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle military exercises that started Monday as he was being taken into a police car, authorities said.
The exercises are part of Seoul and Washington's efforts to better deter threats from North Korea. The man had visited North Korea six times between 2006 and 2007. He was also behind the first-ever assault against a foreign ambassador in Seoul which took place in 2010. He was given a suspended jail term for throwing pieces of concrete at then Japanese ambassador to Seoul.