Lee Jae-myung, the chief of South Korea’s major opposition occasion, was stabbed within the neck on Tuesday morning, in line with the police and live-streamed TV footage.

Mr. Lee, the chief of the liberal Democratic Celebration, was visiting the southern port metropolis of Busan when an unidentified man stabbed him within the neck with a knifelike weapon, in line with the footage. Mr. Lee, 59, had simply completed taking questions from journalists after touring the location of a deliberate airport and was making his means by a crowd of reporters and supporters when he was attacked.

The police in Busan mentioned the assailant had been detained, however they didn’t present any particulars about Mr. Lee’s situation or the motives of the attacker. Mr. Lee was bleeding from the neck earlier than being taken away in an ambulance, in line with information experiences and photographs from the scene.

By early afternoon, there had nonetheless been no official assertion about Mr. Lee’s situation, however native information experiences prompt that his damage was not life-threatening.

​Footage from the assault confirmed the assailant approaching Mr. Lee by a gaggle of TV digital camera operators, apparently posing as considered one of his supporters; he was sporting crown-shaped headgear bearing the phrases “I’m Lee Jae-myung.” Supporters and cops overpowered the person after the assault and took him to a police automotive.

Mr. Lee was narrowly defeated by Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative, in South Korea’s final presidential election, in 2022. He has since been subjected to a collection of investigations by state prosecutors on corruption and different felony costs.

He denied all the fees in opposition to him and went on a three-week starvation strike in protest, accusing Mr. Yoon of utilizing the felony justice system to intimidate his political opponents. A courtroom refused to permit prosecutors to arrest Mr. Lee, however he faces the prospect of a collection of trials.

Mr. Yoon expressed “deep concern” about Mr. Lee’s security after the assault on Tuesday, ordering his authorities to hold out a fast investigation and to supply assist for the opposition chief’s medical therapy, the president’s workplace mentioned in an announcement.

“The president emphasised that this type of violence shouldn’t be tolerated underneath any circumstances in our society,” the assertion mentioned.

South Korean politics have turn out to be more and more polarized in recent times, and rancor between Mr. Yoon’s supporters and Mr. Lee’s has been rising with the method of parliamentary elections in April.

However bodily assaults on politicians have been unusual. In 2006, the conservative politician Park Geun-hye, then an opposition chief, was slashed within the face with a field cutter by a person who had been a vehement critic of her. Ms. Park went on to win the 2012 presidential election.

In 2015, a self-styled nationalist who had expressed anti-American sentiments minimize the face of Mark W. Lippert, then the USA ambassador to South Korea, with a kitchen knife.