South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung stabbed in Busan

SEOUL, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Lee Jae-myung, the leader of South Korea's main opposition party, was stabbed in the neck during an appearance in Busan on Tuesday and airlifted to a hospital in Seoul, local media reported.

Lee, head of the Democratic Party, was speaking to reporters when he was suddenly struck by a man in his 60s after touring the construction site of a new airport in the southeastern port city.

The suspect was pretending to be one of Lee's supporters and asked for an autograph before stabbing him on the left side of the neck with a knife roughly seven inches in length, Yonhap news agency reported, citing police and eyewitness accounts.

Videos on local news stations and social media showed the attack by a man wearing a blue paper crown with Lee's name on it. He was quickly subdued by police and supporters and arrested at the scene.

Busan police later identified him as a 66-year-old man with the surname Kim. Authorities planned to charge Kim with attempted murder after he confessed to intending to kill Lee, police officer Soh Je-han said at a press briefing.

Lee was seen in images and videos lying on the ground and bleeding from the neck after the attack. He remained conscious and was transferred to Pusan National University Hospital, Yonhap reported.

He was later airlifted by helicopter to Seoul National University Hospital for emergency surgery, Democratic Party spokesman Rep. Kwon Chil-seung told reporters in front of the hospital.

Kwon said doctors were concerned about bleeding around Lee's jugular vein and characterized the attack as an act of terror and an assault on democracy.

"This should never have happened under any circumstances," he said.

Lee, the former governor of Gyeonggi province, narrowly lost the presidential election to Yoon Suk Yeol in 2022.

The 59-year-old politician has been the subject of a series of investigations on corruption and other charges by state prosecutors since the election. He has denounced the charges as politically motivated and conducted a 24-day hunger strike in September in protest.

Yoon "expressed deep concern about the safety of Lee Jae-myung after hearing the news of his attack," his spokeswoman Kim Soo-young said.

Yoon "emphasized that our society must not tolerate such acts of violence under any circumstances," she added.