The leader of South Korea’s leftwing opposition was stabbed in the neck on Tuesday, throwing the country’s politics into flux ahead of parliamentary elections in April.
Lee Jae-myung, who was defeated by conservative Yoon Suk Yeol by a margin of less than 1 per cent in the last presidential election in 2022, was attacked as he visited the site of a proposed airport in the southern port city of Busan.
The alleged assailant was a man in his 60s who was wearing a paper crown with Lee’s name on it, according to local media reports. Video footage from the event shows the man purporting to ask for Lee’s autograph before lunging forward and stabbing the politician in the neck with a knife. The man has been arrested.