{"id":18335,"date":"2015-03-09T18:03:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T18:03:46","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2015-03-09T18:03:46","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T18:03:46","slug":"South-Korean-president-visits-US-ambassador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=18335","title":{"rendered":"South Korean president visits US ambassador"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Korea\u2019s president visited injured US Ambassador Mark Lippert on Monday amid an outpouring of public sympathy and support for the envoy, who is recovering from an attack by a knife-wielding man.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lippert has been hospitalized since Thursday at Seoul\u2019s Severance Hospital, where President Park Geun-hye also received treatment in 2006 when she was knifed by a man with a box cutter during an election rally. Park was then an opposition party leader.<\/p>\n

Park\u2019s office said the president went to the hospital shortly after she returned to South Korea on Monday from a Middle East tour.<\/p>\n

Conservative activists and Christians have wished Lippert a quick recovery, held pro-US rallies and conducted dance performances near the US Embassy in Seoul. High-level government officials and politicians have visited him, and one well-wishing man even tried to offer dog meat to him.<\/p>\n

Hospital officials said they expect to release Lippert on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The alleged attacker, known as an anti-US activist who was previously convicted of hurling a piece of concrete at the Japanese ambassador in Seoul in 2010, was arrested Friday. Kim Ki-jong could face charges including attempted murder.<\/p>\n

Police said the exact motive for Kim\u2019s action was not known<\/strong>, but that he shouted after the attack that he opposes the ongoing US-South Korea military drills that North Korea condemns as a preparation for a northward invasion.<\/p>\n