SEOUL
South Korean medical officials said Saturday that U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert is expected to leave the hospital next week following the removal of stitches from the injuries he suffered in a knife attack by an anti-U.S. activist.
A plastic surgeon at Yonsei University's Severance Hospital where Lippert had surgery told reporters at a briefing Saturday, "we believe that it is reasonable [for Lippert] to leave the hospital on Wednesday after having his stitches removed on Monday or Tuesday."
Yoo Dae-hyun was quoted by national news agency Yonhap as saying, "the wound is clean and the patient is stable."
The head of Severance Hospital explained that while surgery had covered most of the effects of Lippert’s injuries, the ambassador was now mostly suffering from pain in his left arm, which was decreasing in intensity.
On Thursday, Lippert was attacked with a 25-cm knife at a breakfast event, leaving the envoy with face and arm wounds that needed more than 80 stitches.
Kim Ki-jong, 55, was caught red-handed following the attack, and shouted opposition to ongoing joint military exercises between South Korea and the U.S. as police carted him away.
Kim was taken into custody Friday on charges of attempted murder as well as violence against a foreign envoy and business obstruction after Seoul’s Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for him.
Before entering the court for a hearing, Kim told reporters that a police investigation into his ties to North Korea were “nonsense."
Kim denied being sympathetic to the North, insisting he had never been to the country – despite a preliminary probe showing he had traveled there seven times between 1999 and 2007 under the approval of the unification ministry.
Police have recovered hundreds of items from Kim’s home and office in the western Seoul district of Seodaemun – including what was described as "treasonous books."
Yoon Myeong-seong, chief of Seoul’s Jongno Police Station, told a press briefing they were particularly interested in items "suspected of being pro-North Korea in nature."
Hwang Sang-hyeon, Kim's attorney, has said that the attack was not premeditated, and his client had only decided to confront Lippert about the military exercises after receiving an invitation to Thursday’s event from its organizer last month.
The assault was the first on a U.S. ambassador to South Korea, but Kim had been behind the first-ever attack on a foreign envoy to the South in 2010 when he threw a rock at a Japanese ambassador.
Yonhap reported that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is to be kept informed on the progress of a local probe into questions surrounding Kim's precise motivations and whether he had acted alone.
The task force looking into the case has said Kim may also face the charge of violating South Korea's National Security Law, which bans nationals from publicly sympathizing with Pyongyang, if enough evidence is found.
