Opposition politician Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in the neck in a near-fatal attack on Jan. 2 in the southern city of Busan.
South Korean police have revealed that the man accused of stabbing opposition leader Lee Jae-myung in the neck wanted to kill him to prevent him from becoming the country's president.
“The suspect decided to kill Lee to prevent him from becoming president,” Busan Police Chief Woo Cheol-mun told reporters on Wednesday.
Woo said the suspect said he was dissatisfied with what he believes were authorities' failures to punish Lee over corruption allegations.
On January 2, the 59-year-old leader was brutally attacked in the southern city of Busan.
The attacker, posing as a follower, pushed through the crowd to reach him and stabbed him in the neck, causing a near-fatal injury to his jugular vein.
After extensive emergency surgery, Lee recovered and was released from the hospital on Wednesday.
Woo said the suspect left an eight-page note, adding that he purchased an outdoor knife last April and followed Lee at five events since June.
“It is analyzed that the suspect's subjective political beliefs led to the extreme crime,” Woo said, noting that police had not found other accomplices. During police interrogation, the suspect did not have a defense lawyer, according to Busan police.
'End the politics of hate'
Police handed the suspect over to prosecutors, who will determine whether to charge him and send him to trial. If he is accused but does not yet have a lawyer, a court will appoint one for him.
A Busan court earlier approved an arrest warrant against him for alleged attempted murder.
“I'm sorry because I caused people concerns,” the suspect said in brief comments to reporters at the Busan prosecutor's office. When a reporter asked him if he planned the attack alone, he said: “Yes. How could he plan this with someone else?
Police declined to identify him by name, saying only that he is about 67 years old.
After his release from the hospital on Wednesday, Lee said he hoped his stabbing would mark the end of the “politics of hate.”
“I hope that this case, which shocked everyone, can serve as a milestone in ending hateful and confrontational politics and restoring proper politics,” Lee told reporters and supporters.
South Korean politics has become increasingly polarized and heated recently ahead of April's general election, with President Yoon Suk-yeol's conservative People Power Party and Lee's Democratic Party tied in the polls.
